The future of chiropractic: a psychosocial view.

As the total health-care delivery system in the United States has come under increasing public scrutiny, the role of chiropractic has become of interest. An overview of chiropractic, with an analysis of its social functions and a projection of its future indicates that chiropractic is more congruent with the values of its lower-middle-class clientele than is orthodox medicine. Chiropractors function adquately to legitimize their patients' entrance into the "sick role" and to provide an alternative channel to therapy. The marginal role of the chiropractor in the health-care system, as compared to that of the physician, is stable and functional for the chiropractors thenselves, as well as for their patients. Chiropractic likewise serves the physician, both as a boundary-defining mechanism and as a means of disengagement from troublesome patients. For these reasons, we believe that the role of chiropractic within the health-care system will remain stable in the future.