Necessity for Correct Diagnosis
Diagnosis, in a restricted sense, means merely the naming of diseases. But in the broader and more proper sense it means disease knowing and includes a knowledge of the causal factors, the location and nature of disease, the amount of damage to structure and of functional disturbance, and the probable duration and outcome of the case either with or without Chiropractic adjustments. In this broader sense we use the term hereafter.
The object of diagnosis is correct adjustment. Including as it does palpation, nerve-tracing, and symptomatology, the Chiropractor’s diagnosis of a case should embrace all the knowledge upon which he proceeds with his adjustment.
There are really two all-important questions which constantly recur to confront the busy practitioner. One is, “What is the matter with my patient?” and the other, “What can I do to relieve him?” Practice resolves itself into these two divisions, diagnosis and adjustment.
The real question which should suggest itself to the thinking Chiropractor is not, then, “Should a Chiropractor study diagnosis?” but rather, “From what viewpoint should we study diagnosis? Upon what portions of the subject shall we concentrate our attention?”
Undoubtedly the most important branch of diagnosis to us is vertebral palpation. By its use we discover those facts about the spinal column without which we are entirely unable to proceed as Chiropractors. Knowledge concerning the spine is the most essential part of diagnosis.
Next in order of importance comes the study of physical or objective signs throughout the body—the examination of the body for the discovery of all the changes in the size, shape, position, etc., of organs which indicate disease. This includes nerve-tracing, which in some cases is the most important branch of physical diagnosis after vertebral palpation.
Finally, a certain degree of examination for subjective symptoms may be necessary. But the Chiropractor of the future should become, and probably will become, par excellence a physical diagnostician.
For many reasons we should be able to rely upon our own diagnoses. Capability in diagnosis renders us independent of the errors or false beliefs of others. Since it includes a knowledge of subluxations, not included in medical training but still vital to correct interpretation of morbid phenomena, it can be more accurate than any diagnosis which ignores these causal factors. A habit of diagnosing one’s own cases enables one, always resting on his own judgment, to correct and improve himself through all errors, for which he is then alone responsible.