In the Dutch general practitioners' guidelines spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) is not recommended for treatment of acute low back pain. This is in contrast to the recent American and English guidelines, which explicitly recommend SMT for this indication. Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) on SMT are on average of low methodological quality. Most systematic reviews, however, lead to positive conclusions. The potential sources of discrepancy between the recommendations in the national guidelines are: interpretation of the available RCTs and systematic reviews, composition of the guideline-setting committee, values of the participants and appreciation of direct and indirect costs. Definite conclusions on the efficacy of SMT for (acute) low back pain cannot yet be drawn. Therefore, more RCTs in various settings and on different indications are clearly needed.