OMT--what's your opinion of it?

[moo]

Do you D.O. students think this manual manipulation stuff really works? Isn't it a bit like what chiros do? Sorry if I sound ignorant on this subject--it's because I am.

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[rhillstr]

Let me start off by telling you YES! I just spent the afternoon with Yoda the OMM master. It was like magic the way what almost seems like nothing can rearrange everything from pain, to posture, to moods. DO's use HVLA (what Chiropractors use mostly) in addition to Strain-Counterstrain, Muscle Energy, Myo-fascial release, and other stuff I have not yet had the pleasure of seeing. Find an OMM specialist and spend and afternoon with them, you'll realize real quick there is more going on then "bone-cracking".

 

[DOs rule!]

Of course OMM works. All you need is to try it yourself, and you will get that chnace when you sign up for DO school. DO yourself a favor and take ostepapthy...MD's are going out of style anyway.

 

[drusso]

Sure, manual therapy works. Ancient physicians practiced manipulation and manipulation used to be a regular part of medical training. European orthopods get training in manipulation. Currently, physical therapists, occupational therapists, physiatrists, and of course chiropractors, use manipulation to one degree or another.

There needs to be more evidence-based investigation of manipulative modalities and a better of understanding of its indications and contraindications. Nevertheless, in the great scheme of things manipulation certainly has a place. I hate when people make manipulative modalities seem like magic. It's not. It's just another medical skill like taking a good history, performing a thorough physical, or even tying surgical knots.

 

[JasonLMusser]

I'll add my good words on OMM/OMT to my compatriots. Yes it works. I will agree that OMM is a skill like surgery. And, like surgery, some will be better at it than others. Practice makes perfect, but some just have a gift for it. Which is perfectly natural and alright. We're not all born with the same gifts.

Yes, it is the same as chiropractors use. After all, the founder of chiropracty (sp?) was a patient of the late, great Andrew Taylor Still, the founder of Osteopathy. But, as said before, OMM is so much more than chiropracty. It manipulates the muscles, the soft tissues, the organs, and the nerves. Even MDs are trying to get into the manipulation swing, via scaled-down courses of manipulation over weekends. It is also more than just a treatment modality. It is also used in diagnosis and can help narrow down the differential diagnosis before turning to expensive tests. Visceral-somatic, visceral-visceral, and somatic-somatic reflexes give DOs clues as to what is happening beneath the skin and ways to help the body cure the disease. We use indepth knowledge of the workings of anatomy and physiology to help us help our patients.

As to it being magic??? Well, someone once said that any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic. Thus ends the sermon of the day.....

Have a great Osteopathic day!

Jason

 

[moo]

Thanks for the replies everyone. The reason why I ask this is that I read somewhere that a lot of "new" D.O.'s don't seem to practice OMM/OMT at all, or if they do, they practice it minimally. From your responses, I gather that this isn't true.

 

[JasonLMusser]

Moo,

As loath as I am to admit this, your last statement, that of not a lot of new DOs using OMM may be true. Even in my class of about 200 DO students, I know that fewer than 100 will end up using it, possibly even on 50 of them might use it on a daily basis. This is disturbing to me for two reasons, one, I love OMM, and two, it's part of what makes us distinctive from MDs. It's not that they aren't being taught well, just the opposite. It's rather that they, like MDs and a large part of the public, still fear it because they feel they (as the DO) might hurt a patient while using it, which is wrong. If good technique is employed, only good outcomes will result. If poor techniques are used, poor outcomes will result. I think too many of them have watched the hero (or villian) in the movies break someone's neck with just a twist, but have forgotten both that the movies employ artistic license and that the anatomy of the neck doesn't work that way.

One further issue that will be of interest to OMM using DOs in the future, that of reimbursement by major medical insurance companies. In Michigan, a doctor was found guilty of malpractice relating to the use of OMM. Several factors were funny about the case. The first being that the state medical board was completely bypassed by the prosacution (sp?). Secondly, the orginal case was throughout by the judge. Thirdly, that another DO was brought in to say that the doctor was using improper techniques. Was the technique wrong? No. Could you convince a jury of normal, non-osteopathically-trained people that? No. Came down to being one doctor's word against the others. Does this whole case worry me? Yes! I want to use my OMM in my practice and I sure as heck don't want some other doctor coming in and saying I'm NOT doing something right when I AM actually doing it RIGHT. By the by, the judgement of the doc in question was to repay the insurance company for that technique on the patient in question, a whopping total fine of 27 dollars.

I do applaud all of the DOs out there who use OMM on a daily basis and know that the case mentioned above is probably a fluke. But, also keep in mind two things. One, on average, a physician is sued every 7 years, more or less. Two, if you don't document it, you didn't do it. Records will end up being your defense in cases that you can't remember a thing about because they weren't important enough to keep in your brain with all of the rest of the miriad of medical trivia.

Politics: a part of ours lives now. Someday's though, I just hate them.

Good luck and have a great Osteopathic day!!

Jason

 

[boneman]

I work as an osteopath in the uk, as such i do not treat 'medically', only with omt and exercise prescription, i can confirm that omt works, omt is the most researched of any treatment for back pain, and is proven to be at least as effective as medical intervention. (see the Lancet.)

I think it is a shame that DO's in the US seem to have a lack of commitment to osteopathic medicine. despite that their is, of course some great work being done, particularly as their seems to be more funding for research with you.

 

[OldManDave]

At this point in my education, I would have to say that OMM has proven itself a useful tool within the limits of its applicability. However, until I have more clinical training, the precise definition of "applicability" will remain nebulous...in fact, as with many things in medicine, it may never be firmly defined.

------------------
'Old Man Dave'
KCOM, Class of '03

Nothing Risked, Nothing Gained!!

 

[Stephen Ewen]

TOUCH.

What a wonderful thing for physicians to do.