chiropractors as folk devils: published and unpublished news coverage of a moral panic

Abstract

This research provides empirical support for an existing processual model, documenting the social context, development, and growth of a moral panic surrounding stroke risk from chiropractic neck manipulation. This case highlights the importance of both published and unpublished news stories regarding the nature of claims that evolve over time and in specific stages of a moral panic. Chiropractic's status as deviant science as well as underlying professional tensions within the Canadian health care system sets up a narrative stigma contest and affects the information made available to the public about issues of safety and health.

Support for this research was obtained through a grant funded by the Office of Graduate Studies and Research, Texas A&M University–Commerce. The author thanks librarians Scott Downing and David Rankin for their assistance obtaining Canadian newspaper articles. The author also thanks Sarah-Jean Bell and Pamela Millar for their assistance conducting the intercoder reliability procedures used in this research. Finally, constructive comments from anonymous reviewers are acknowledged in making this a much stronger piece of research. An earlier version of this article was presented in March 2007 at the Southwest Social Science Meetings in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Notes

¹The use of the term “manipulation” will be used in this research rather than chiropractic “adjustment.” Manipulation is a more general term for a technique utilized by multiple health care practitioners while adjustment is a more specific technique performed by chiropractors exclusively.

²The Toronto Star is Canada's largest metropolitan daily newspaper with a daily circulation of over half a million. Globe and Mail as well as National Post, two smaller national newspapers focus on general news as well as business reporting. The Toronto Sun is the third largest national English-language daily newspaper in Canada.

³If chiropractic neck manipulations are responsible for stroke, then it is hypothesized the following would occur: a vertebral artery would tear, or dissect from the trauma introduced during the thrusting motion of a neck manipulation. This tearing would occur in the inner lining of the artery, but also outside of the skull (“Adjustment Did Not Cause Tear in Artery” 2002). The chiropractic profession maintains the risk of stroke to be one or two in every million manipulations.

⁴Until its delisting, OHIP covered up to $150 per person per year, with chiropractic billings in 2001 amounting to $92 million. Nearly two-thirds of the cost of chiropractic treatment was paid for out-of-pocket by each patient, as chiropractic was rarely covered by private insurance.

⁵The focus on children was perplexing. Aside from their being a sacred group, there was no scientific evidence to suggest they were more vulnerable to strokes or were being harmed in mass from chiropractors. None of the reported victims were under the age of 18.

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Yvonne Villanueva-Russell

Yvonne Villanueva-Russell is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Texas A&M University–Commerce. Her research focuses on the history, professionalization, politics, and scientific validation of complementary and alternative medicine. She has published in Social Science and Medicine and Social Theory and Health.