An Open Letter to the American Physical Therapy Association.

--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 15, 2000

Jan K. Richardson President, American Physical Therapy Association 1111 North Fairfax Street Alexandria, VA 22314

Dear Ms. Richardson,

The following is in response to the April 12th news release sent out by the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) regarding the May 2000 CR story on alternative health care.

First, the article did not discredit physical therapy as a treatment. For all conditions, overall, two-thirds of readers found physical therapy, as well as alternative manual therapy, at least somewhat helpful. The first paragraph of the Consumer Reports story, on page 18, clearly shows this to be the case. In our box for arthritis, for example, we noted that "Most of the patients who tried physical therapy, chiropractic, deep-tissue massage, or megavitamins said they found those treatments at least somewhat beneficial."

Readers' experiences with physical therapy indicate that they found it at least somewhat helpful for two-thirds of all conditions, overall. For two conditions, however, it fared less favorably than deep-tissue massage. And for headaches, it was among the least effective treatments. We stand by these findings.

Second, we feel that our definitions of treatments were clear and unambiguous. "Physical therapy" and "exercise" were listed as two of six separate, specific treatments under the general category heading "Conventional Therapies" in our survey. We trust that our readers recognized as physical therapy any treatment that was provided by a physical therapist.

By contrast, "Deep tissue massage, chiropractic treatment, and acupressure/shiatsu were listed as separate treatments under the general category heading "Complementary Treatments." A very specific definition of "deep tissue massage" appeared in parentheses following its listing. The following were defined as deep-tissue massage: rolfing, myofascial release, and neuromuscular massage. We don't dispute that physical therapy treatments may include deep-tissue massage or exercise, but people also use deep-tissue massage or exercise as distinct therapies apart from physical therapy.

Third, we were surprised to read about your claim that we refused to provide the survey instrument. No one involved in the project-- survey research division, customer relations department, or office of public information at Consumers Union-- received a request for a copy of our questionnaire from APTA. It is our standard policy to provide copies of the questionnaire upon request. Had we known of this request, we would have provided a copy to APTA and have subsequently done so.

Sincerely,

Mark Kotkin,

Manager, Survey Research

Consumers Union