Dodgy Chiropractic Advertising and the ASA

A common criticism I come across (from my girlfriend especially) about skeptics is that the majority of us do not play an active roll, that we simply absorb skeptical material as entertainment and talk about it rather than getting up and doing something about it (I think I agree with this overall). Of course, Simon Perry is the obvious example we should all think about when considering what each of us can easily do to make a difference.

When I came across some dodgy advertising for a local chiropractic clinic in Sheffield I saw this as an excellent opportunity to become more active.

The poster I saw was shown in a public place and therefore comes under the remit of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

Usual stuff really, apart from the paragraph 'Chiropractic has been shown to help with a vast array of musculoskeletal promlems, in almost every part of the body, not just the spine and neck'. This claim jumped out at me.

I reported this to the ASA (unfortunately I didnt keep a copy of the complaint, I'll try and get a copy to add on here).

The general gist of my argument referred to the General Chiropractic Council who are the body established by parliament to regulate the profession. Fairly recently they published the 'Effectiveness of manual therapies: the UK evidence report' which 'intends to be a comprehensive summary of the scientific evidence regarding the effectiveness of manual treatment for the management of a variety of musculoskeletal and non-musculoskeletal conditions'.

The GCC wrote [PDF] to the UK's chiropractors in March 2010 advising them to refer to this report when advertising their services.

In summary, the report concludes that there is only one treatment with a high level of positive evidence (chronic low back pain), the remainder are moderate or inconclusive. In the 'extremity - musculoskeletal' conditions reviewed, 12 had inconclusive evidence and 8 had moderate evidence (with a mix of favourable and un-favourable). The conclusions on non-musculoskeletal conditions were even worse. This seemed to be in direct contradiction to the advertising and didn't follow the advice given to the chiropractor by their regulatory body.

The ASA seemed to agree and I received the following response;

A job well done I think!

If you fancy submitting your own complaint then check if it falls within their remit and fill in the online form, it only took me 20 minutes.