How Should Treatments Be Critiqued for Scientific Merit?

The overall goal of this article is to provide physical therapists with some strategies for critically analyzing the scientific merit of physical therapy treatments. To accomplish this goal, five characteristics of nonstandard or alternative therapies are presented, with representative examples of each characteristic from the rehabilitation literature. Following discussion of nonstandard treatment approaches, six specific criteria for evaluating the scientific merit of a new (or existing) therapy approach are provided. The decision as to whether or not to use a specific treatment approach is the ethical responsibility of all physical therapists and should be based on careful examination of both the theoretical principles and the scientific rigor underlying the therapy approach.