The swing of the pendulum

Cath Young is a physiotherapist who currently teaches the safe and effective application of electrophysical agents (EPA) in the School of Physiotherapy and Exercise Science at Griffith University on the Gold Coast, Australia.
I began my professional life in an era when the bells and whistles of various machines (ultrasound especially) still had a strong placebo effect and conservative referring doctors did not send patients to alternative practitioners. A reaction to those dreary days of medical referrals asking for "heat and exercises three times per week for three weeks" incited a comprehensive swing against the use of EPA, especially in sports and musculo-skeletal health care. And rightly so. However that swing really represented the turn against the ad hoc treatment of symptoms, rather than a reasoned and evidence based treatment of pathologies and physical syndromes. Now there is movement back to the middle ground. Plenty of highly qualified and skilled Physiotherapists cheerfully admit that the trend to leave EPA on the shelf may be short-changing the patient.