Historical Osteopathic Principles and Practices in Contemporary Care: An Anthropological Perspective to Foster Evidence-Informed and Culturally Sensitive Patient-Centered Care: A Commentary

Historical osteopathic principles and practices (OPP)—considering the patient as a dynamic interaction of the body, mind, and spirit and incorporating the body’s self-healing ability into care—are inherited from traditional/complementary and alternative (CAM) principles. Both concepts are familiar to contemporary osteopathic practitioners, but their incorporation into healthcare for evidence-informed, patient-centered care (PCC) remains unclear. Further, a polarity exists in the osteopathic profession between a ‘traditional-minded’ group following historical OPP despite evidence against those models and an ‘evidence-minded’ group following the current available evidence for common patient complaints. By shifting professional practices towards evidence-based practices for manual therapy in line with the Western dominant biomedical paradigm, the latter group is challenging the osteopathic professional identity. To alleviate this polarity, we would like to refocus on patient values and expectations, highlighting cultural diversity from an anthropological perspective. Increasing an awareness of diverse sociocultural health assumptions may foster culturally sensitive PCC, especially when including non-Western sociocultural belief systems of health into that person-centered care. Therefore, the current medical anthropological perspective on the legacy of traditional/CAM principles in historical OPP is offered to advance the osteopathic profession by promoting ethical, culturally sensitive, and evidence-informed PCC in a Western secular environment. Such inclusive approaches are likely to meet patients’ values and expectations, whether informed by Western or non-Western sociocultural beliefs, and improve their satisfaction and clinical outcomes … MORE

Gravity and the Gut: A Hypothesis of Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Early Osteopathic Thought on Serious Mental Illness and How Osteopathic Medicine Fits Into Psychiatry Today

Osteopathic medical students spend considerable time learning the history, philosophy, and theories of osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM) and skills of osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT), all of which are tested on licensing exams. Data from the National Resident Matching Program show that 17.4% of fourth-year osteopathic medical students matched into psychiatry postgraduate year-1 positions in 2021, compared with 6.5% in 2019. However, very few osteopathic psychiatrists utilize OMT.

Since its inception, osteopathic medicine has theorized about and proposed treatments for serious mental illness, such as mood disorders and schizophrenia. However, there has been minimal mention in osteopathic textbooks of the treatment of these conditions with OMT (1), limited studies investigating use of OMT for serious mental illness, and no official OMT clinical guidelines for psychiatric conditions. Furthermore, application of OMT requires physical touch—a controversial and ethically charged topic within psychiatry. The goal of this article is to contextualize early osteopathic thought about the treatment of serious mental illness, propose reasons for the decline in OMT utilization in psychiatry, and briefly discuss current literature on using OMT in psychiatry … MORE

Avoiding nocebo and other undesirable effects in chiropractic, osteopathy and physiotherapy: An invitation to reflect

Inter-rater reliability between osteopaths of differing clinical experience on sagittal plane running gait analysis: A pilot study

Clinical running analysis is commonly employed in the screening of running related injuries. Currently, there remains little research exploring the use of clinical running analysis within the osteopathic profession. Hence, the aim of this pilot study is to investigate the inter-rater reliability of sagittal plane visual gait observation amongst osteopathic practitioners … ABSTRACT

Opportunities to Incorporate Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment Within Cancer Rehabilitation and the Current State of the Evidence

Cancer rehabilitation involves addressing the impact of cancer and its treatments upon the function of an individual. The goal of this paper is to determine how osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) can be utilized in treating common conditions seen in cancer rehabilitation, such as post-mastectomy pain syndrome and radiation fibrosis, to improve pain and function … ABSTRACT

Pain and functional recovery from chronic low back pain over 12 months: implications for osteopathic medicine

Osteopathic manipulative treatment in cardiac surgery patients. A systematic review

Osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) in surgical patients aims at reducing postoperative pain and enhancing recovery. The effects of OMT have not been extensively studied in cardiac surgery patients, mostly owing to the fact that a limited number of osteopathic physicians are trained in thoracic surgery … ABSTRACT

Diagnosis and management of headache disorders in osteopathic practice: A qualitative study