The global summit on the efficacy and effectiveness of spinal manipulative therapy for the prevention and treatment of non-musculoskeletal disorders: a systematic review of the literature

Systematic review commissioned by an international Global Summit of 50 researchers from 8 countries (convened Toronto, 14-15 September 2019, with 28 observers from 18 chiropractic organizations), fetched directly from PMC (PMCID PMC7890602) 31 August 2026 and confirmed via PubMed (PMID 33596925) and Crossref (DOI 10.1186/s12998-021-00362-9): Chiropractic & Manual Therapies, volume 29, article 8, 2021. Reviewed six randomized clinical trials (534 participants) of spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) for non-musculoskeletal disorders. Conclusion, taken from the fetched text: the reviewers found no evidence of an effect of SMT for the management of non-musculoskeletal disorders including infantile colic, childhood asthma, hypertension, primary dysmenorrhea, and migraine, a finding that challenges the validity of the theory that treating spinal dysfunctions with SMT has a physiological effect on organs and their function. Six of the 50 Summit participants (12%) did not approve the final report. Used as a hard-endpoint (randomized-trial-based) evidentiary-failure source for the broader disease-curing claim descended from Palmer's original doctrine, and as present-day continuity evidence that this claim is still practiced and debated today.