MD doing OMM

[MateoGM416]

You brought up that you have a problem with people billing for placebo. Its not in any way a distinctive or defining characteristic of OMM practitioners.

You're framing it like a DO exclusive practice when its rampant everywhere outside of the most conventional EBM practice. Hell even MDs do it sometimes to line their pockets (ever heard of PRP injections?).

I completely agree with these statements

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[ceramicist1899]

None of the articles you linked answered my question about how OMT would actually treat the migraine. If you can't explain how it works, how could you tell it's not just a placebo effect? It's been decades or more than a century since some of these techniques have been practiced, and we are still looking for evidence that they work 100 years after the fact.

Also, there's no need for personal attacks or psychoanalyses. If I wasn't curious about the subject why would I care at all? I already said that I do believe a good portion of OMT is useful and makes scientific sense. Even if I didn't, isn't it just as unintellectual to go through four years of DO school, learn all the ins and outs of every technique, spend hundreds of hours studying for in-house/board exams/practicals, and not question any of it? It's okay to acknowledge that many of the techniques and principles DO schools still teach exist so that DO's can be unique. I don't have an inferiority complex for saying that, and I think that line of thinking is more beneficial to the DO profession than blindly believing everything we've been taught.

Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment and the Management of Headaches: A Scoping Review Maybe this will help?

 

[MateoGM416]

Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment and the Management of Headaches: A Scoping Review Maybe this will help?

It's better than what the other guy linked, but still:

Similarly, for TTH, there is no definite mechanism for the physiological effects of OMT. OMT techniques, including MFR, provide direct relaxation of muscle tension in cervical muscles and fascia, resulting in relief. Therefore, this can indicate that TTH causes dysfunction of pericranial myofascial tissue, which can explain part of the pathophysiology of TTH [31].

 

[Angus Avagadro]

Lol, like a moth to a flame you are back, Indignant that the mechanisms of how OMT works aren't documented. You somehow have a problem with treating people with OMT, and they go home feeling bettter. If muscle relaxants and oxycodone, the typical treatments for low back pain are effective, why do patients seek alternative treatments? It's because many times, pain killers and muscle relaxants don't resolve the issue. You are merely treating symptoms. Could a placebo effect be in play? Sure. Placebo effect is a real thing. So, maybe explain to us what exactly is wrong with a placebo effect? The patient feels better in the end. Now, before we start playing .".Well, yeah, but what about...."... again, I'll play when you can explain how tylenol blocks pain or reduces fever. Exactly, the mechanism. We have had about 150 yrs to figure that one out and it is still not clear. Are you equally outraged and rending your garments that you someday tell a new Mom to give her child Tylenol to lower the fever without knowing the precise mechanism of how it works? Or will you just not prescribe tylenol? It makes me sad you are so unhappy learning about OMM as you spent years studying and preparing to get accepted to medical school. Nobody will force you to use OMT, so I don't understand your reaction. As you will learn in years to come, lots of treatments in medicine are used without understanding the mechanism or.having FDA approval. My suggestion would be to let your feeling about OMT go, learn what you need to pass and move on. Just a suggestion.

 

[threepwood]

Wait until he finds out there are drugs commonly in use that we don't understand the mechanism of yet doctors use them all the time. Ever hear of empirical evidence? Not saying OMM is 100% legit but just because there's not a defined mechanism doesn't mean that it can't possibly work. That's a terrible scientific attitude.

 

[ceramicist1899]

It's better than what the other guy linked, but still:

I think your search for the mechanism of action is very commendable- I often do this in my studies as well. However, there are so many things that work that we don't know how. There are so many drugs that we earn about that, to quote my very educated pharmacology professors, "work really well but we don't quite understand how though." Is it placebo? Maybe. Do physicians still prescribe them often to help their patients? Yes. Some people have issue with placebo, but I am not one of those people. Hook me up to an IV of it if it works (I'm not saying OMT is placebo here at all, however). One can argue that even some drug's efficacies that have a definable mechanism of action are largely placebo (SSRIs potentially? Not sure. Ongoing studies are needed). Another question to pose for you is this: Who funds that vast majority of scientific literature in the country? The people who make money from drugs and procedures. That's why prolotherapy doesn't have as vast a literature base as PRP or steroid injections (which can be just as harmful as they are helpful and are still used regularly); prolotherapy doesn't make big Pharma big money, and that is who pays for most of the research these days. I respect your quest for an answer, but sometimes there aren't any, but things help our patients live longer, happier lives and we have to be okay with that. I hope you're able to use some of the OMT skills you learn to help your patients in the future. I have a professor that helps babies that can't latch breastfeed by doing myofascial release and other techniques in their occiput region which releases tension placed on CN XII and allows their mouth/tongue to work properly to latch and suck. Is there a lot of data on this? Not sure. I haven't looked. My guess is no, but she has been doing it for years with insane success. People from all around the country come to see her. Baby comes in, can't latch. Baby leaves, can latch. Is it placebo on the infant's part? Probably not. Just because there isn't data out there doesn't mean it definitely won't work/is pseudoscience. Physicians used stuff with insane success before mainstream research studies came along.