Your Fears Are Unfounded
Dear Editor:
I was anxious and hopeful to read a different perspective as to why chiropractors should not prescribe medications in the two-part series by Dr. Sweere ["Prescribing Rights: Be Careful What You Wish For"; digital exclusive in the July and August issues]. But what I read was nothing more than what we have seen written before, i.e., Big Pharma bad, all medications bad, go to medical school if you want to prescribe, etc. The implication is chiropractors with prescriptive authority will overprescribe, mirror what currently occurs, and be a detriment to the public. This is insulting to our profession.
The key contradictory quote from part 2 is: "[E]ven if chiropractors were properly trained and authorized, such practices would be considered highly unethical, with justifiable accusations of professional interference commonplace." If one is properly trained and authorized, they have a duty to provide an opinion concerning what they are "properly trained" to do to a patient who is searching for a second opinion – just like what occurs now within the traditional medical profession.
What I don't see is an attempt to research the states where chiropractors currently prescribe and/or use prescriptive and non-prescriptive items. Are chiropractors in these states overprescribing and a threat to public safety? More than 100 chiropractors have had prescriptive authority in New Mexico since 2009, and DCs have had the ability to inject and provide IVs in Oklahoma since 1980. Here in Colorado, more than 1,000 chiropractors have had the authority to prescribe over-the-counter medications for years. DCs in other states also have the authority to use medications in one way or another. Dr. Sweere's fears are unfounded in these states. Chiropractors have judiciously utilized medications in line with their deeply rooted conservative-first approaches to health care.
The chiropractic world is not going to collapse if a few DCs have the ability to provide an occasional muscle relaxer or the ability to inject a trigger point. It hasn't in the states in which they have the authority. The fear mongering by the more conservative segments of our profession is getting old. They have no evidence to back up their charges of future mayhem and every day, DCs in states with expanded authority prove them wrong.
Michael Simone, DC
Fort Lupton, Colo.
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