Quack Watch and the Graston Technique

Another debunking study published in this month's Quack Watch that seems to prove that "non-specific thoracic spine pain" is not really a physically treatable problem:

Graston technique study finds unimpressive results

A randomized controlled clinical trial has found no difference in outcome for pain or disability among patients who received spinal manipulation, Graston technique, or sham therapy for nonspecific thoracic spine pain. However, all groups improved. The study involved 143 patients who were evaluated at 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months. [Crothers AL and others. Spinal manipulative therapy, Graston technique and placebo for non-specific thoracic spine pain: a randomized controlled trial. Chiropractic & Manual Therapies, May 16, 2016] Graston Technique is said to use "specially designed stainless steel instruments, along with appropriate therapeutic exercise, to specifically detect and effectively treat areas exhibiting soft tissue fibrosis or chronic inflammation. The Graston Web site says that the technique is used by 24,500 clinicians worldwide and is taught at 45 colleges and universities.

http://chiromt.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12998-016-0096-9 (Spinal manipulative therapy, Graston technique® and placebo for non-specific thoracic spine pain: a randomised controlled trial)

 

That all groups improved, no matter what therapeutic technique was used, is the kicker, wouldn't you say? Seems to confirm what Dr Sarno asserts: that millions, nay billions of dollars, are being spent on therapies for lower lumbar pain that are absolutely of no earthly use. People lie; statistics don't.

 

https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-graston-technique-inducing-microtrauma-with-instruments/#more-3170 (The Graston Technique – Inducing Microtrauma with Instruments « Science-Based Medicine)

Evidence never has any effect on the people pushing all these worthless modalities though. They just assert nonsense as if it were fact.

PS I had a few Graston sessions on a knee at one point. They truly were painful and didn't do anything positive. Had I expected them to, the result might have been different I suppose.

 

"The Graston Technique website tells us it is used by more than 6,500 clinicians worldwide—including athletic trainers, chiropractors, hand therapists, occupational and physical therapists. It tells us the Graston Technique® instruments, much like a tuning fork, resonate in the clinician’s hands allowing the clinician to isolate adhesions and restrictions, and treat them very precisely. It tells us the treatment is clinically proven and it has resolved 87% or more of all conditions treated. (This claim is supported only by this “outcome data” chart with no explanation of what the data mean or where they come from.)

You must pay $495 for 12 hours of training to become qualified to treat and to purchase the set of instruments. The price of the instruments is $2755 — for six curved pieces of steel."

There's a place around my neck-of-the-woods pushing the Graston Technique as a new way of solving lower lumbar pain problems. They've bought a lot of expensive advertising in the local media too explaining that their therapy is something new and unique.

Bah Humbug!

 

As they say on the science based medicine forum I linked to before, the plural of anecdote is not data. People -- particularly chiropractors and to an extent physical therapists -- are shameless in their willingness to make unsupportable claims to an unsuspecting public.

 

This is what the Graston Technique website claims about the efficacy of their modality:

"Soft tissue injuries can be debilitating and frustrating. Graston Technique® (GT) is successful in effectively treating all soft tissue conditions, whether they are chronic, acute or post surgical. GT can help you enjoy life again."

All soft tissue conditions? Says who? On what sort of statistics are they basing this claim?

Sounds like someone had better call a lawyer, and pronto!

 

Thanks for the info BruceMC! The first thing I do when hearing about a new treatment modality is to go to QUACKWATCH and see what it has to say about it. The QUACKWATCH site evaluates claims for treatments and products by real scientific standards, weeding out the charlatans and the snake-oyls.

For people in chronic pain, hope springs eternal, desperately searching for THE CURE. Before discovering Dr. Sarno's TMS, I certainly wasted huge amounts of time and money on structural solutions from A to Z, that my white-coats told me were the source of the pain.

 

"Graston Technique® (GT) is successful in effectively treating all soft tissue conditions, whether they are chronic, acute or post surgical."

All soft tissue conditions? Aren't those overblown and extravagant claims starting to move into the realm of medical malpractice? Sounds like it to me!

By the by, when I looked them up on GT website, there are at least 5 or 6 chiros in my immediate area who have taken their courses and are GT certified. If you multiply that sampling all over the country, you can see that a heck of a lot of coin is being moved around to sell medical paraphernalia (i.e. stainless steel GT tools) and teach techniques that have no medical value whatsoever.

All of which leads me to the conclusion that nonspecific lower back pain should be treated as a mind-body disorder, not a condition associated with some kind of "inflammation" (which has never been demonstrated incidentally).

What a racket!

 

One of many rackets. Acupuncture, dry needling, myofascial release, trigger point injections, to name just a few. Oh, and of course the ubiquitous posture correction and ergonomics.