A commentary on the implications of medication prescription rights for the chiropractic profession

Peter C Emary; Taco A W Houweling; Martin Wangler; Stephen J Burnie; Katherine J Hood; W Mark Erwin

doi:10.1186/s12998-016-0114-y

A commentary on the implications of medication prescription rights for the chiropractic profession

Chiropr Man Therap. 2016 Aug 24;24(1):33. doi: 10.1186/s12998-016-0114-y. eCollection 2016.

Authors

Peter C Emary¹, Taco A W Houweling², Martin Wangler³, Stephen J Burnie⁴, Katherine J Hood⁵, W Mark Erwin⁶

Affiliations

¹ 201C Preston Parkway, Cambridge, ON N3H 5E8 Canada.
² Department of Chiropractic Medicine, University Hospital Balgrist, Forchstrasse 340, 8008 Zürich, Switzerland.
³ Medizinisches Zentrum KurWerk, Poststrasse 9, CH 3400 Burgdorf, Switzerland.
⁴ Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, 6100 Leslie Street, Toronto, ON M2H 3J1 Canada.
⁵ 11 King Street West, Suite C-120, Toronto, ON M5H 4C7 Canada.
⁶ Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, 6100 Leslie Street, Toronto, ON M2H 3J1 Canada ; Department of Surgery, Divisions of Neurological and Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Toronto, Toronto Western Hospital, 399 Bathurst Street, KD 5-407, Toronto, ON M5T 2S8 Canada ; Krembil Research Institute, 60 Leonard Street, Toronto, ON M5T 2S8 Canada.

Abstract

There is a growing desire within the chiropractic profession to expand the scope of practice to include limited medication prescription rights for the treatment of spine-related and other musculoskeletal conditions. Such prescribing rights have been successfully incorporated into a number of chiropractic jurisdictions worldwide. If limited to a musculoskeletal scope, medication prescription rights have the potential to change the present role of chiropractors within the healthcare system by paving the way for practitioners to become comprehensive specialists in the conservative management of spine / musculoskeletal disorders. However, if the chiropractic profession wishes to lobby to expand the scope of practice to include limited prescriptive authority, several issues must first be addressed. These would include changes to chiropractic education and legislation, as well as consideration of how such privileges could impact the chiropractic profession on a more theoretical basis. In this commentary, we examine the arguments in favour of and against limited medication prescription rights for chiropractors and discuss the implications of such privileges for the profession.

Keywords: Attitudes; Behaviour; Chiropractic; Drug prescriptions; Evidence-based practice; Knowledge.