Two Points of View on the inclusion of Prescribing into Chiropractic practice

 

I have never felt the need to prescribe meds, if I felt a patient needed meds I would refer them to a medical doctor. If the needed their sink unblocked I would send them to a plumber. Of the case for, I think John Triano has made it best however his argument that the slippery slope US Osteopaths walked on is not such a bad path was far from convincing.

This is a 45 minute interview with John J. Triano, DC PhD . He is the dean of graduate education and research at Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College.  He spoke with Brett Kinsler about limited prescription authority for chiropractors and his views on the topic.

Chiropractors in Switzerland have had prescription rights since 1995 JMPT looked at it last year.

Policy Statement against the Inclusion of Drugs in Chiropractic

from the foundation for Vertebral subluxation

There is general agreement throughout chiropractic that we are a drugless profession. The Association of Chiropractic Colleges Paradigm, adopted by most major chiropractic organizations including the ACA, ICA, and WFC, states emphatically:

"Chiropractic is a health care discipline which emphasizes the inherent recuperative power of the body to heal itself without the use of drugs or surgery."

Yet there is an insidious movement within our profession to override the consensus of the majority of the chiropractic colleges, organizations & practitioners that serve our profession and incorporate the use of prescription drugs, including injectables, into patient care.

It is the position of the Foundation for Vertebral Subluxation that the inclusion of drugs within the chiropractic scope of practice would be contrary to the historic and widely accepted identity of the profession.

While some chiropractic schools have offered postgraduate courses in injectable nutrients and local anesthetics, few, if any, accredited chiropractic colleges provide instruction on the use of prescription drugs, including injections of homeopathic medications, hormones, prolotherapy agents, etc.

No chiropractic college clinic employs injectable homeopathic remedies, injectable nutrients, and other legend drugs in the care of outpatients in their teaching clinics. Furthermore, students have no hospital rotations and practical training in dealing with anaphylactic reactions and other adverse effects.

Homeopathic medicine is highly controversial. Furthermore, only three states separately license homeopathic physicians (Arizona, Connecticut and Nevada). They require that an applicant hold a medical degree, complete residency training, and have specialty training in homeopathy. All homeopathic injectables and some oral products are prescription drugs. To have marginally trained DCs practicing an entirely different system of medicine is not in the best interests of the profession or the patient community.

The expansion of drugs into the scope of chiropractic practice would result in an increase in professional liability insurance premiums and the public image of the profession would suffer, as chiropractors could become perceived as third-rate medical practitioners, sometimes using very questionable drugs and medicines. Chiropractors would become part of the iatrogenic drug problem and chiropractic’s impressive safety record could become a thing of the past.

Tiering of the chiropractic profession that would result from the introduction of drugs would lead to two (or more) classes of chiropractors, causing a level of splintering and divisiveness the intensity of which the profession has never experienced.

For the reasons outlined above, the Foundation for Vertebral Subluxation is opposed to any effort that seeks the addition of drugs into the scope of chiropractic practice and calls on all professional organizations and practitioners to reemphasize the definitive paradigm of the profession.