| Expectations are believed to influence clinical outcomes. This study investigates the outcome expectations of chiropractors and chiropractic patients with respect to various non-musculoskeletal conditions and explains how expectation can influence patient care. Research Method: Practitioner opinion was sought by e-mail. E-mails were sent until 50 randomly selected and 50 purposively selected chiropractors had received an e-mail. Convenience sampling of patients was undertaken. Both groups were asked to indicate how effectively they anticipated chiropractic care would be in the management of a number of non-musculoskeletal problems. Results: Two hundred and four (204) patients and 15 chiropractors participated. Although outcome expectations differed somewhat depending on the condition, the tendency amongst those who provided feedback was to expect chiropractic care to provide good or moderate benefit. Except for diabetes, where chiropractic benefit was regarded with less optimism, less than 10% of the sample anticipated no or a poor response of any listed conditions to chiropractic care. Discussion: There is increasing scientific evidence confirming that expectations are important non-specific triggers influencing clinical outcomes. Research has shown that verbally induced expectations of pain relief can reduce the amount of analgesia requested, alter the anatomical area in which relief is experienced and modify various psychological and physiological parameters. As expectations are determined more by perception than reality, placebo-induced analgesia has the potential to contribute to the outcome of every chiropractic clinical encounter. Conclusion: The contribution of the placebo response to chiropractic care should ideally be maximized in every clinical encounter and acknowledged in chiropractic education. This abstract is reproduced with the permission of the publisher; full text (print only) by subscription.
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