Chiropractic adjustments and informed consent: More research

What does the law say about chiropractic adjustments? Should informed consent be required?

In the following research article, authors Steven Brown, DC, DIAMA, and Robert Cooperstein, MA, DC, review the evidence the Connecticut Board of Chiropractic Examiners considered in their 2010 memorandum containing their conclusion about whether stroke or cervical artery dissection is a likely risk factor for patients getting chiropractic adjustments, and whether DCs must explain this possibility prior to treatment.

The article, “The Connecticut Law on Chiropractic Informed Consent to Cervical Artery Dissection and Stroke: A Narrative Review,” appeared on June 2, 2025, in the Journal of Contemporary Chiropractic, a publication which is fully subsidized by Parker University.

Click here to download the complete text of the study in pdf format.

In a previous article, James J. Lehman, DC, DIANM, Director of Health Sciences Postgraduate Education Department at the University of Bridgeport, and medicolegal expert witness Brown presented “Informed Consent Regarding Risk of Stroke from Cervical Spine Manipulation: A Narrative Review,” recently published in the Journal of the International Academy of Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine, discussing its importance due to the risk of stroke from this kind of chiropractic adjustment. Although post-adjustment strokes are rare occurrences, the authors concluded that the literature they reviewed supported informed consent as the standard of care for the chiropractic profession.