What have you learned in DO schools?

[deleted212936]

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To everyone who's been in D.O. schools:

I've known about D.O philosophy just recently, and the more I read, the more I'm fascinated by it!
For example, a young man suffering from pain due to a cervical disc problem and his practitioner was spending time treating his legs when it was his neck that hurt. The doctor explained that due to a past traumas, the man's legs were pulling on his neck, restricting its motion, and that unless he freed up the area, the pain would persist. Much to the patient's amazement, a great deal of his pain disappeared, before his neck was treated!

It's very interesting to me! I'm pondering about choosing to apply to D.O. school, but before that, I would like to know what other things you have learned from D.O that M.D don't know of.

 

[MaximusD]

To everyone who's been in D.O. schools:

I've known about D.O philosophy just recently, and the more I read, the more I'm fascinated by it!
For example, a young man suffering from pain due to a cervical disc problem and his practitioner was spending time treating his legs when it was his neck that hurt. The doctor explained that due to a past traumas, the man's legs were pulling on his neck, restricting its motion, and that unless he freed up the area, the pain would persist. Much to the patient's amazement, a great deal of his pain disappeared, before his neck was treated!

It's very interesting to me! I'm pondering about choosing to apply to D.O. school, but before that, I would like to know what other things you have learned from D.O that M.D don't know of.

tensegrity etc etc etc

The differences between osteopathic and allopathic medicine are approaching zero asymptotically. DO "philosophy" is not different IN PRACTICE. Sure med school may be different with OMM, but unless your residency doesn't reinforce that you won't practice it. Sorry to rain on your parade. I like OMM, but it is limited and isn't heavily practiced.

 

[WDeagle]

I disagree with maximus. PM me if you want to know why. I dont have time for a long, well thought out response right now.

 

[Toohotinvegas33]

I feel at DMU that we have a very strong OMM department, but at the end of the day we are learning medicine+ omm.

 

[TexasTriathlete]

I believe that DO schools require much longer orientations than MD schools.

 

[rddoms]

I second the above statement. I don't care though, I whitecoat in 13 hours! It begins! 😀

 

[GreenShirt]

Here's the converse example: We improved pedal pulses by treating the head, neck, and ribs. Whole body treatments like these usually relate to improving lymphatic flow which effects the whole body or manipulating the continuous fascial sheaths that cover the body's muscles.

 

[scpod]

....I would like to know what other things you have learned from D.O that M.D don't know of.

There aren't any super secret things that separate MDs from DOs these days. Yes, there are cases where an MD surgeon wants to remove a rib to treat TOS and the DO can manipulate it and save tons of time, money, and effort....but there really aren't many differences between the two these days.

However, there are some things that can benefit you. For instance, I was doing and H&P on a new admit in the ED yesterday and one of the attendings (an MD) asked me if I wanted to help out on an LP for another patient. Of course I said yes, and he seemed to have a hard time finding the L4-5 interspace-- but I guarantee you that I've done so much spinal manipulation in the last couple of years that that is just like cake to me. So....there are some benefits, IMO.

 

[niranjan162]

but I guarantee you that I've done so much spinal manipulation in the last couple of years that that is just like cake to me. So....there are some benefits, IMO.

is there alot of focus on the spine in general or just in OMM classes

 

[DragonWell]

Anecdotes like the one posted above are interesting, but don't make the mistake of choosing your profession or believing DO is somehow above MD based on them.

Almost any type of manual therapy will transiently decrease pain - the parasympathetic response invoked by almost any touch therapy tends to reduce the sensation of pain and help people feel better for at least a little while. If you are inexperienced, or maybe just have a healthy ego, it's very easy to believe that you just "fixed" the problem - the patient feels better and you can give yourself a pat on the back, right? Occasionally, this may actually happen, but you need to realize that this type of "fix" is extremely rare.

Rather, most MSK problems reflect either transient issues that will spontaneously resolve with or without treatment, or chronic imbalances that have developed over a long time. For transient problems, OMM may be helpful for symptom relief, similar to an NSAID or other palliative treament.

In the case of chronic problems, you need to look at a patient's symptoms and level of function over a sustained period of time to judge the effectiveness of any therapy. Looked at in this way, it becomes much more difficult to show in the long run that OMM or any other therapy is more effective than doing nothing, and it becomes clear that, while nice for the patient, the transient pain relief at the time of treatment is in many ways more of a confounding factor than a sign that your work has truly been effective. IMHO, too many practitioners interpret the positive immediate effects of their treatment as evidence that their treatment has been effective.

It takes a lot of time to develop the ability to work effectively with fascia, especially using indirect techniques, and unless they maybe plan to specialize in OMM or FP, most students will never become proficient. I am at a DO hospital - the vast majority of the staff are DOs, and I have yet to see OMM practiced on a single patient.

I don't mean to discourage anyone who is interested in OMM - I am actually quite interested in it, but I do think it's important to temper anecdotes like the one above with reality and to see them in the larger picture of both manual therapy and osteopathic medicine as a whole.