The Scottish Chiropractic Association: Attempting to ‘manipulate’ the entire Scottish population?

Guest post by Blue Wode. Originally published on The Twenty First Floor on 14 March 2012.

Introduction

In recent times, the two main UK chiropractic associations, the British Chiropractic Association (BCA) and the McTimoney Chiropractic Association (MCA), have come under intense scrutiny. The BCA was brought to its knees by the misconceived libel case it brought against the science writer and broadcaster, Simon Singh, and, as a direct result of it, the MCA suffered the humiliation of having a confidential email to its members leaked online which revealed that it had urged all of them to take down their websites as they were a real threat to both them and their practices. By comparison, the Scottish Chiropractic Association (SCA) has enjoyed a relatively uncontroversial existence. Until now.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the SCA claims on its website that the majority of chiropractic patients present with musculoskeletal complaints such as lower back and leg pain, neck and mid-back pain, headaches, and shoulder and arm problems. It also says that chiropractic can play a “vital” role in living a healthy lifestyle. Undoubtedly most visitors to its website will view these claims as innocuous but in context; however, they suggest a hidden agenda.

Political Lobbying

In June 2011, at the AGM of the Scottish Parliament Cross Party Group on Chronic Pain (CPGCP), Mary Scanlon, Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) and Convenor, asked why chiropractors seemed so scarce in Scotland. Her question resulted in a number of clinicians advising her that they had reservations about practices like chiropractic that involved spinal manipulation as they were aware of patients who had developed complications as a consequence of it, and that it generally didn’t help people with chronic pain — indeed it tended to make symptoms worse. Interestingly, Steve Gilbert, National Lead Clinician for Chronic Pain in Scotland, mentioned that any treatment will help a patient where time and attention is enhanced by touch — a view that is consistent with the World Health Organisation’s 2003 bulletin on Low Back Pain.

It’s worth noting at this point that although the SCA’s representative on the CPGCP (Ross McDonald, SCA President) didn’t attend the June 2011 AGM, or the subsequent meeting in October 2011, an impressive 76 members of the SCA turned up to rub shoulders with MSPs at a chiropractic promotional evening on 9th November 2011 at the Scottish Parliament. This wasn’t the SCA’s first time engaging with Scottish Parliamentarians — it had previously enjoyed their hospitality during a visit in the summer of 2010 to raise awareness of chiropractic and introduce MSPs to chiropractic spinal screenings and health checks.

On the day of the November chiropractic lobbying event, Mary Scanlon MSP informed the Scottish Parliament that she thought it:

odd that, although chiropractic treatment should be available on the NHS, no GPs refer patients for it

Perhaps she wasn’t paying close attention during the June 2011 CPGCP’s AGM when several of its members took a dim view of the efficacy of spinal manipulation. Or perhaps there’s another reason — one that’s not getting through to her and other MSPs, but which, as will become apparent, seems to be understood increasingly (albeit slowly) by GPs and other healthcare professionals.

Philosophical Underpinnings

By way of illustration, one need look no further than the website of Bill Walker MSP who has had no qualms about publicising an encounter he had with Dunfermline-based chiropractor, Mark Baxter, at the November 2011 Scottish Parliamentary reception for the SCA. Mark Baxter told him:

As a proven, cost-effective, regulated Health Care profession, we stand ready to assist the people of Scotland, and Dunfermline in particular, with effective relief from most mechanical back and neck pain related conditions.

However, Mark Baxter could easily be accused of giving a false impression of chiropractic in Scotland. If you take a close look at the photograph that Bill Walker has included on his web page, you’ll notice that beyond the friendly handshake being presented to us lurks something that is altogether very different from the musculoskeletal pain relief line offered by Max Baxter.

Bill Meets Mark Baxter

Immediately behind the two men, you’ll see a display sporting the SCA emblem on which the following can be clearly discerned:

…UR VISION …TO CREATE A VITALISTIC …OPRACTIC MODEL …TH AND …ALTHCARE OF …TIRE NATION.

Those words are a blatant indication that the SCA favours an outdated model of healthcare above an evidence based one. Indeed one single, damning word, ‘vitalistic’, confirms that the SCA is committed to perpetuating its long-held belief in an implausible concept.

Unfortunately, it is more than likely that Bill Walker, Mary Scanlon, their MSP colleagues — plus a vast swathe of the Scottish population — are unaware that vitalism is an old, discredited philosophy that proposes that living things possess a non-physical, ‘vital’ energy force.

Many chiropractors, however, still believe in vitalism, referring to its metaphysical, non-measurable entity as ‘Innate Intelligence’, a term that is exclusive to chiropractic. Such chiropractors are adherents to the doctrine of chiropractic’s founder, Daniel David Palmer, who hypothesised that a patient could achieve optimal health or ‘wellness’ by allowing the spinal cord to express its ‘Innate Intelligence’ through spinal ‘adjustments’ (often confused with spinal ‘manipulations’) to correct alleged misaligned vertebrae (‘subluxations’ as defined by chiropractors). These misalignments, Palmer believed, caused ‘nerve interference’ that was responsible for triggering most diseases. However, it has been shown to be anatomically impossible for misaligned vertebrae to interfere with the autonomic (involuntary) nervous system and no one has ever been able to demonstrate that subluxations exist or cause disease by theoretically compromising neural integrity.

This vitalistic approach — which usually focuses on detecting and adjusting subluxations as opposed to treating pain symptoms only — is almost certainly why the SCA’s website declares that, in addition to musculoskeletal conditions, chiropractic can play a “vital” role in living a healthy lifestyle. Indeed, this seems to be further confirmed by a previous SCA president’s comments on the results of a General Chiropractic Council (GCC) committee member election:

…many of the old guard mechanists have been swept out of office and the vitalistic group have attained a more democratic and mainstream chiropractic balance. If the younger members, up to 500 of whom did not have a vote because of a quirk in the law, had been able to vote then I believe the swing would have totally unseated the medically oriented mechanists so prevalent on the previous Council. The future is a little brighter for British Chiropractic.

Sadly, the unwitting patients of vitalistic chiropractors are vulnerable to becoming the victims of what is known as the chiropractic bait and switch:

…someone may go to see a chiropractor and think they will be seeing a medical professional who will treat their musculoskeletal symptoms, but in reality they will see the practitioner of a cult philosophy of energy healing…The bait — claims that chiropractors are medical practitioners with expertise in the musculoskeletal system. The switch — practitioners of discredited pseudosciences that have nothing to do with the musculoskeletal system…

Some chiropractors attempt to overcome charges of promoting quackery by substituting the word ‘subluxation’ with other terminology. The SCA, however, seems content to make reference to ‘subluxations’ on its website, although it appears to be carefully worded.

Scientific Evidence

But perhaps of greater concern is the SCA’s use of what appears to be a patient compliance and retention gambit with its advice

to get the most out of your treatment, it is important to follow your chiropractor’s recommendations and advice

and also its scientifically meaningless claim that:

a growing number of patients are looking for help with more general health conditions and choose chiropractic care to ensure optimal spinal function

As UK chiropractors are required by law to obtain informed consent from their patients, this assumes that such patients will be made fully aware that there is no good evidence for chiropractic beyond the short-lived relief of pain in patients suffering from acute low back pain. This obligation for transparency obviously presents an ethical dilemma for chiropractors as divulging the slim evidence for spinal manipulation, and the risks of chiropractic, has the potential to deter patients from proceeding with proposed treatments. This ethical dilemma is illustrated by two surveys, one of UK chiropractors, and one of UK and US chiropractors. A large number of chiropractors in these surveys admitted to failing to implement valid consent procedures for a variety of reasons, most of which were not in the best interests of patients.

Although serious adverse events associated with chiropractic treatment appear to be rare, a responsible risk/benefit assessment of most chiropractic manipulative interventions usually arrives at an unfavourable conclusion. Indeed, as Simon Singh said at the end of his article which saw the BCA launch its unsuccessful lawsuit against him:

If spinal manipulation were a drug with such serious adverse effects and so little demonstrable benefit, then it would almost certainly have been taken off the market.

That comment may seem sensationalist, but when you consider that the main risks of chiropractic treatment are not confined to patients suffering from neck pain, it makes perfect sense. What many people do not seem to appreciate is that chiropractors who believe that they are detecting and correcting ‘subluxations’ will often adjust the necks of patients suffering from back pain.

The other risks worth considering which are far more common, but often overlooked, are:

(a) decreased use of immunisation due to misinformation given to parents, (b) psychologic harm related to unnecessary treatment, (c) psychologic harm caused by exposure to false chiropractic beliefs about ‘subluxations’, and (d) financial harm due to unnecessary treatment.

Incredibly, despite these concerns, there is no reliable reporting system for harms experienced by chiropractic patients in the UK. This state of affairs is made all the more disconcerting by the content of a draft document on revalidation which was commissioned recently by the GCC (which, after it was dropped briefly, it was told to reinstate). Its purpose was to provide an analysis of the risks and benefits of chiropractic, with the aim of establishing if there was a business case for revalidation. In section 5.72 of the document, the BCA admits that its members have caused patient rib fracture injuries, but in sections 5.13 (along with the MCA), and 5.64, the SCA have apparently ignored the request for details of patient incidents and complaints.

Putting chiropractic pseudoscience and risks to one side brings the cost-effectiveness of spinal manipulation into sharp focus, and based on the data that are in so far, the news is not good. A 2003 review found that, in most instances, manipulative treatments for back pain were more expensive than others (apart from surgery) and not more helpful to outcome, and a major 2006 review found that manipulation for spinal pain normally represented an additional cost to conventional treatment. This factor alone has the capacity to impact negatively on a chiropractor’s ability to earn a living.

By now it should come as no surprise to readers that quite a few GPs in the UK (i.e. not just Scotland) are not referring patients to chiropractors. This is mainly due to dozens of Primary Care Organisations refusing to fund the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence’s (NICE) recommendations for spinal manipulation as a first line treatment for low back pain. When the recommendations were originally published, they immediately sparked fierce criticism, not least from other musculoskeletal practitioners, and to date, as the Ministry of Defence recently reminded a new chiropractic campaign group, chiropractic has not been endorsed by the NHS.

Chiropractic Wars

Returning once again to the philosophical stance of the SCA, it’s worth mentioning that even the embattled BCA has made it clear that it takes exception to vitalistic practices. Along with the MCA and the United Chiropractic Association (UCA), the SCA recently formed a group called the Alliance of UK Chiropractors (AUKC) and they asked the BCA to join it. However, the BCA refused, objecting to the AUKC’s adoption of the International Chiropractors Association (ICA) Best Practices documentation, which, among other policies:

  • Supports 27 indications for chiropractic radiography (x-rays) including spinal subluxation, birth trauma (forceps), facial pain, skin diseases, organ dysfunction, eye and vision problems, and hearing disorders.
  • Recommends a basic care plan for simple uncomplicated axial pain (neck pain, back pain, etc) consisting of 25 visits over 8 weeks – with the presence of ‘complicating factors’ (including family/relationship stress, lower wage employment, and wearing high-heeled shoes) warranting a recommended additional 12-visit blocks of care.

In particular, the BCA:

…did not consider a basic 25-visit course of care for uncomplicated back pain to be in the best interests of patients and deemed such practices as being open to allegations of patient exploitation. It also advised that UK chiropractors should not be subjected to US guidelines that are fundamentally incompatible with European law, nor that make recommendations for care that dictate extensive care plans on the basis of flimsy complicating factors.

Back to the Future

All of the above raises the following question: Could the SCA’s vitalistic outlook be the reason for its representative’s absence at the recent meetings of the Scottish Parliament’s CPGCP? Whether it was or not, it is likely that the credibility lent to the SCA by the inclusion of its most senior officer on the CPGCP will be used to great advantage by it during its intended future discussions with the Scottish Parliament regarding the regulation of chiropractors (ref. item 34 of the GCC’s Communication Advisory Group meeting in December 2011).

These proposed meetings could well be an indication that there is manoeuvring afoot by the SCA to enhance its standing in Scotland in the form of a Scottish Chiropractors’ Act, and/or a ringing endorsement of chiropractic from NHS Scotland (whether Scotland becomes independent or not). But even if that is not the case, it is paramount that the SCA’s strong leanings towards unscientific, vitalistic chiropractic practices are fully understood by as many people as possible — i.e. not just Mary Scanlon, her MSP colleagues, but also the general public, the full spectrum of healthcare professionals, and the media.

In the meantime, elsewhere in the world, chiropractors who avoid science as a basis for their practices are coming under fire from within: In Australia they are being severely criticised for being misguided and irrational; in the United States, James Winterstein, D.C., President of the National University of Health Sciences, has declared that “the subluxation must go” because there’s no evidence for it; and in a recent article in the journal, Chiropractic & Manual Therapies, another academic chiropractor demanded that registration boards…

…prohibit the common practice whereby potential clients present to a chiropractor for a musculoskeletal complaint, only to be convinced that they are in fact suffering from subluxation related disorders and require prolonged chiropractic care.

Chiropractic’s day of reckoning will come, but it doesn’t look like it will be any time soon. Indeed, as Simon Singh commented recently regarding the state of chiropractic in the UK in the aftermath of the BCA’s failed lawsuit against him:

I suspect that we are back to square one with chiropractors making all sorts of weird claims and a regulator that is unable or unwilling to take control.

So, until things are tightened up, be wary of chiropractors wherever you are. It may not be only your spine that they’re out to manipulate.

Further reading

Scottish Parliament Freedom of Information request procedure

Chiropractic overview at Science Based Medicine

Chiropractic articles at Science Based Medicine

Chirobase

11 thoughts on “The Scottish Chiropractic Association: Attempting to ‘manipulate’ the entire Scottish population?”

  1. Archeologists have found a document with Richard III’s body confirming his last words were A chiropractor!
    A chiropractor! My kingdom for a chiropractor.

  2. I noticed you made the point “Interestingly, Steve Gilbert, National Lead Clinician for Chronic Pain in Scotland, mentioned that any treatment will help a patient where time and attention is enhanced by touch”

    Why are physio’s discouraged on the NHS from touching patients in the NHS, don’t the want them to get better?

    As a Chiropractor in Scotland I would suggest to any patient if you are asked to block book a program of treatment in advance, are given a myoscan (roll a sensor up your back and have lovely green and red bars off either side of a image of the spine), given X-rays with no history of trauma, serious pathology (malignancy) or anything else that would result in change to bone, it is nothing more than marketing. Nod politely and go elsewhere. There are good Chiropractors in Scotland who are good at getting you out of pain (and we dont only do manipulation or cracking the spine, but we do do some of that), Blue Wode is absolutely correct Holistic, Vitalistic, Optimal Health are buzz words (which have in my opinion have come across from the States with Chiropractors trained outside the UK system) for which patients should be rightly wary. The scary thing is there is a mission by the SCA to create a Vitalistic Chiropractic College in Scotland. I sincerely hope the model follows that of what the AECC and WIOC teach, the more Vitalistic Chiropractic Colleges in the USA have struggled to retain accreditation, where a a full wallet and a pulse get you an education.

    I think it only fair to point out that whilst it is easy to write Chiropractic only good evidence for acute and subacute Lower Back Pain, by inference slating how little evidence supports Chiropractic, a similar poor level of evidence exist for Physiotherapy for treatment of other areas of the body, Facet Joint injections have been shown to be less effective than manipulation, decompression surgery about the same as doing nothing if you take a 5-10 year prognosis.

    No private healthcare system is perfect especially when the clinician stands to have a financial advantage if he gives more care. Back surgery rates 5-10 times higher in the US than the UK. I know they are fatter does that make their back that much worse.

    Bottom line you pay your money and take your choice, but if you are not improving after 3-5 treatments for Acute or subacute pain (up to 7 weeks) its not helping, 7-8 treatments for chronic pain, ask about other treatment options or referral its a GCC requirement there is research to back this up but I cant find it right now.

    1. Peterson CK, Leeman S, Lechmann M, et al. Symptomatic magnetic resonance imaging-confirmed lumbar disk herniation patients: a comparative effectiveness prospective observational study of 2 age- and sex-matched cohorts treated with either high-velocity, low-amplitude spinal manipulative therapy or imaging-guided lumbar nerve root injections. J Manipulative Physiol Ther 2013; 36(4): 218-225).

  3. E.P. wrote: “Why are physios discouraged on the NHS from touching patients in the NHS, don’t they want them to get better?”

    NHS physios do touch patients, but they don’t want to create patient dependency. IOW, they encourage self-help and coping tactics in their patients (usually by prescribing exercises). When they do use touch, in the form of manipulation, they are normally far more judicious in their use of it than chiropractors because their approach is mechanical rather than vitalistic.

    E.P. wrote: “As a Chiropractor in Scotland I would suggest to any patient if you are asked to block book a program of treatment in advance, are given a myoscan (roll a sensor up your back and have lovely green and red bars off either side of a image of the spine), given X-rays with no history of trauma…nod politely and go elsewhere.”

    How would a patient know to do that? The General Chiropractic Council does not publish advice to help patients know when they are being scammed.

    E.P. wrote: “There are good Chiropractors in Scotland who are good at getting you out of pain.”

    That may be so, but with no directory to which patients can refer to locate one, it’s currently a lucky dip.

    E.P. wrote: “Holistic, Vitalistic, Optimal Health are buzz words (which have in my opinion have come across from the States with Chiropractors trained outside the UK system) for which patients should be rightly wary.”

    With scarce, unambiguous information available about chiropractic, it’s likely that the vast majority of patients won’t know to be wary of these buzzwords.

    E.P. wrote: “The scary thing is there is a mission by the SCA to create a Vitalistic Chiropractic College in Scotland.”

    That’s not surprising when you consider that the current president of the SCA, Ross McDonald, was Chair and co-author of the dossier, ‘The Vertebral Subluxation Complex – The History, Science, Evolution and Current Quantum Thinking on a Chiropractic Tenet’:
    http://bcc.biblioteques.info/en/detall_simple.php?biblionumber=371

    That dossier saw the GCC revise its guidance note on the Vertebral Subluxation Complex in 2010:
    http://www.zenosblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/AUKC_Oct_Newsletter.pdf

    Basically, where it had previously not allowed chiropractic ‘subluxations’ to be linked to ‘health concerns’, it did a U-turn and decided that they could be:
    https://skepticbarista.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/subluxrevltr1.jpg

    E.P. wrote: “Bottom line you pay your money and take your choice”

    With regard to chiropractic, that is rarely an informed choice.

  4. @ James White

    It is not a matter of ‘belief’, it’s about what the robust science tells us. The hodge-podge of studies that you cite are far from convincing.

    With regard to the one area of chiropractic that has shown to be of some use in the past (i.e. spinal manipulation for the relief of low back pain), it increasingly looks like it is a placebo. See here
    http://edzardernst.com/2015/08/chiropractic-spinal-manipulation-placebo/

    and here
    http://www.ebm-first.com/chiropractic/research-and-efficacy.html

  5. So yet again Zeno economical with the truth.

    So the 2016 Nice Guidelines state “Consider manual therapy (spinal manipulation, mobilisation or soft tissue techniques such as massage) for managing low back pain with or without sciatica, but only as part of a treatment package including exercise, with or without psychological therapy”. Interesting the truth is they no longer recommend Chiropractic or Osteopathy, but has anyone noticed they don’t recommend Physiotherapists provide manual therapies either.

    What is more NICE states “Do not offer acupuncture for managing low back pain with or without sciatica”. And yet, “Physiotherapists are the largest group of medical professionals in the UK practising acupuncture. The vast majority of acupuncture treatments in the UK is for musculoskeletal (physiotherapy requiring) conditions”. https://www.aacp.org.uk/page/16/why-an-acupuncture-physiotherapist

    Is it just me that finds it somewhat odd how selective Zeno is being with the research he cites and the references he quotes, could there be some bias? In my humble opinion there appears to be some intellectual bullying or “shooting fish in a barrel” that in no way serves patients at all. If you have low back pain NICE’s omission of recommending named Statutorily Registered Professionals will mean a number of people will have a delayed diagnosis of potentially serious medical conditions which present as back pain. If you have back pain find a registered professional who is trained to assess and deal with the condition.

  6. Eugene wrote: “Interesting the truth is they [2016 NICE Guidelines] no longer recommend Chiropractic or Osteopathy, but has anyone noticed they don’t recommend Physiotherapists provide manual therapies either.”

    According to Neil O’Connell, an academic physiotherapist who was a member of the NICE Guideline Development Group, the evidence was assessed for interventions rather than professions. That said, the new guidelines should not be misinterpreted by chiropractors or osteopaths:

    QUOTE
    “It’s important to understand that the wording from the guideline above makes it clear that exercise is a mandatory part of a treatment package. Manual therapy and psychological therapy are optional add-ons but exercise is compulsory. That means that the treatment options are: exercise alone, exercise plus manual therapy, exercise plus psychological therapy, exercise plus manual therapy and psychological therapy. Using a treatment package that consists of manual therapy alone, psychological therapy alone or manual therapy plus psychological therapy does not comply with the guidance. It’s also important to understand that there is no requirement to provide a multimodal treatment package and in some cases exercise alone will be the most appropriate treatment. You certainly can’t “select just the bits you like” as exercise is not an optional component.
    Now let’s look at what the NICE guidelines say about exercise:
    “Consider a group exercise programme (biomechanical, aerobic, mind–body or a combination of approaches) within the NHS for people with a specific episode or flare-up of low back pain with or without sciatica. Take people’s specific needs, preferences and capabilities into account when choosing the type of exercise.”
    One important point from this guidance is that NICE recommends a “group exercise programme”. This presents something of a problem for pure manual therapists such as osteopaths and chiropractors as they don’t normally have access to a group exercise programme for their patients. I have already highlighted the fact that osteopathy and chiropractic are no longer first line treatment choices for low back pain and sciatica. NICE have made it clear in their own press release that exercise is the “first step in managing the condition”. The right person to deliver an exercise programme is of course a physiotherapist.
    Ultimately, the purpose behind these guidelines is to bring about improvement in care for patients. Views such as “Osteopathy or manual therapy continues to be the treatment of choice for low back pain with the proviso that it is provided with exercise” give an interesting insight into the goals of the osteopathic profession. This statement is far too obviously in conflict with the guidelines to be a mere “misunderstanding”. These kinds of statements appear to be more focused on promoting the businesses of the osteopaths. In so doing, osteopaths seem to have forgotten the most important thing of all: looking after the best interest of their patients.
    The new NICE guidelines are something of a problem for osteopaths and chiropractors as their treatments are no longer first line choices and they are not well placed to offer a suitable exercise programme. Some of them may opt to continue treating patients the way the always have and not take the NICE guidelines into account. However, that is a potentially risky strategy for two reasons:
    1. It doesn’t seem to be in the best interest of their patients
    2. They risk being found in breach of their “Practice Standards” which could result in formal complaints to either the GOsC or GCC. ”

    Reference: https://complementaryandalternative.wordpress.com/2016/12/06/nice-guidelines-for-low-back-pain-and-sciatica-a-clarification/

    Eugene wrote: “What is more NICE states “Do not offer acupuncture for managing low back pain with or without sciatica”. And yet, “Physiotherapists are the largest group of medical professionals in the UK practising acupuncture. The vast majority of acupuncture treatments in the UK is for musculoskeletal (physiotherapy requiring) conditions”.

    I should imagine that physiotherapists will start to drop acupuncture for LBP and sciatica. Further, I understand that the membership of the UK Acupuncture Association of Chartered Physiotherapists is 6,000+ strong. As there are around 49,000 registered physiotherapists in the UK, that would mean that approximately 12 % practice acupuncture (which, of course, is 12% too many). However, according to the latest data on the scope of chiropractic practices in the UK, traditional chiropractic beliefs (chiropractic philosophy) were deemed important by 76% of the respondents, and 63% considered subluxation to be central to chiropractic intervention:
    http://www.ebm-first.com/chiropractic/uk-chiropractic-issues/1188-the-scope-of-chiropractic-practice-a-survey-of-chiropractors-in-the-uk.html
    Those figures indicate to me that physiotherapists are vastly more evidence-based than chiropractors (unless, of course, you have any better data). Further, let’s not forget that a new vitalistic chiropractic college is set to open in Scotland within the next two years:
    http://www.zenosblog.com/2016/02/the-scotland-college-of-chiropractic-out-of-kilter-with-science/
    How does that reassure Scottish patients suffering from low back pain or sciatica?

    Eugene wrote: “Is it just me that finds it somewhat odd how selective Zeno is being with the research he cites and the references he quotes, could there be some bias? In my humble opinion there appears to be some intellectual bullying or “shooting fish in a barrel” that in no way serves patients at all. If you have low back pain NICE’s omission of recommending named Statutorily Registered Professionals will mean a number of people will have a delayed diagnosis of potentially serious medical conditions which present as back pain. If you have back pain find a registered professional who is trained to assess and deal with the condition.”

    Eugene, I think the above illustrates that it *is* just you who finds bias in Zeno’s comments.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


The reCAPTCHA verification period has expired. Please reload the page.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.