Review

Title: A Comprehensive Look at Low Back Pain

Please see pages xx, Parts #V-437, for information on how to order.

Low back pain is looked at in an outstanding presentation by David Cassidy. These videotapes were filmed at a weekend seminar and incorporate Dr. Cassidy's lectures, accompanied by a slide presentation second to none. The slides portray statistics documenting forces, phases of degeneration, efficacy of chiropractic care, and much more. Other slides show excellent drawings and photos of forensic specimens to explain and document the speaker's presentation. The title of this video presentation is absolutely accurate because this is truly a "comprehensive" lecture.

This work is useful to all practicing chiropractors and students as well. Much of the research that exists on the subject of low back pain is included. It is especially interesting to hear his scientific explanations that rotational lumbar adjustments absolutely cannot cause disc herniations. He also discusses the dismal statistical record of back surgery and contrasts it to the excellent record of manipulation. He covers both diagnosis and treatment of many conditions.

Dr. Cassidy is a chiropractor and Ph.D who works with William Kirkaldy-Willis, M.D. in Canada. His credentials as a researcher are as impressive as his clinical skills. Having worked in hospitals, he has the unusual perspective of having observed over 200 dissected spines in his forensic studies. He is thorough and his presentation is well-organized and very interesting.

The video presentation is professionally produced using two cameras. This makes the slides more effective because you see close-ups when appropriate. Although videotape reproduction of projected slides is not perfect, they are more than adequate to see what is being shown. One might think all these statistics and complicated matters might be a little boring; this is not the case, Dr. Cassidy makes it very interesting.

The cost of these videotapes is $325. There are five videotapes with nine hours of recorded material. In other words, what you get is an entire weekend seminar on low back pain that is professionally recorded so you can see it over and over. Since Cassidy works with Dr Kirkaldy-Willis, the seminar is like a live presentation of Dr. Kirkaldy-Willis' book, Managing Low Back Pain. The material is solid and the presentation is excellent. These tapes are definitely worth the price.

I must say that when I started watching the first tape I thought it would be another boring lecture that I would have to sit through for nine hours in order to write a review. It was after about 15 minutes that I sat up in my chair and began getting very excited to see the studies and statistics about the efficacy of chiropractic treatment. It moved quickly and was very interesting for the entire time. In fact, I have watched some of them several times now, and my opinion is that this presentation is interesting, informative and very educational.