Manual Therapy: Always a Passive Treatment?

Abstract

The use of manual therapy as an intervention has garnered intense debate, one that is often mired in a straw-man argument that manual therapy is a purely passive intervention. When passive interventions are equated with low-value care, it is easy to deride manual therapy as low-value care. However, manual therapy describes a wide variety of treatments, some with passive components and some that are primarily passive in certain scenarios. But manual therapy can be an integral part of highly active treatment strategies. We implore investigators to describe manual therapy interventions in sufficient detail so that they can be reproduced and thereby help the end users of research (including clinicians) to better assess the value of such interventions. This Viewpoint challenges the assumption that manual therapy is always a passive treatment of low value. <i>J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 2021;51(10):474-477. Epub 1 Jul 2021. doi:10.2519/jospt.2021.10330</i>.