Osteopathic Therapy And Outcomes.

When considering osteopathic therapeutic intervention, most people immediately think of manipulation. However, manipulation may not always be used. Because the practitioner is a licensed physician and surgeon, there is a vast array of treatment possibilities. The founders of osteopathy considered the unique osteopathic philosophy, not manipulation, to be the profession's key contribution to the world. Manipulation is one of a number of tools used by the physician to implement osteopathic philosophical goals, the result of which is the restoration of homeostasis and functional normalcy in the system.

Other means to achieve treatment goals include (but are not limited to) nutrition, psychotherapy, various types of pharmacology, surgery, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, exercise, orthotic and prosthetic devices, biofeedback, and spiritual support. These tools are frequently combined with manipulation, which is one “spoke” on the therapeutic “wheel.” To insist on the exclusive use of manipulation to treat all conditions is as medically unwarranted as to believe that pharmacological therapy, for example, is a panacea. The osteopathic physician is a complete physician and uses a variety of tools.

Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment
Osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) is often used to support the homeostatic forces of the body, promote healing, combat the effects of compensation and decompensation, and help relieve underlying dysfunctional patterns.

Some research on the basic mechanisms by which OMT promotes homeostasis has been done. Michael Patterson, PhD, a reflex neurophysiologist, has demonstrated that all disease is characterized by a hypersympathetic component to one degree or another, that facilitated spinal cord segments are perpetuated by somatic dysfunction, and that osteopathic manipulation specifically works to reduce this hypersympathetic activity locally and systemically (24). Dr. Patterson has also demonstrated how somatic dysfunction specifically promotes visceral dysfunction via somatovisceral reflex arcs and may be a harbinger of chronic disease. Clearly, more research on OMT mechanisms and effects is needed.