wholistic or holistic?

[hoops90]

Is the DO approach wholistic or holistic?

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[LizzyM]

It is counterintuitive but the spelling is holistic.

 

[willen101383]

DO approach=MD approach

No difference.

Welcome to 2011!

 

[ghostman]

DO approach=MD approach

No difference.

Welcome to 2011!

This is what I thought too, but a friend of mine recently had back pain and the PCP referred a DO. The DO poked some acupuncture needles into his lower back and threw his weight onto my friend while doing some stretching exercises. I imagine this is the "osteopathic manipulative treatment" (is this what chiropractors do?) that they learn that MD's don't learn in med school, but I really don't know for certain. My friend didn't really feel any better, but was told that he should be better after 5 sessions. Afterward, outside the DO's office, there was another room to receive a massage. This made me realize there were differences in DO and MD practices.

On the other hand, I spoke with a DO who was the head of surgery at a hospital. His role probably doesn't differ at all from that of an MD in that same position.

 

[Morzh]

Wikipedia:

Holistic health is a concept in medical practice upholding that all aspects of people's needs, psychological, physical and social should be taken into account and seen as a whole. As defined above, the holistic view on treatment is widely accepted in medicine.[1] A different definition, claiming that disease is a result of physical, emotional, spiritual, social and environmental imbalance, is used in alternative medicine.[2]

The first definition is what both MD's and DO's strive towards. Neither strive towards the second definition, primarily because it is out of the realm of evidence-based practice.

 

[Morzh]

This is what I thought too, but a friend of mine recently had back pain and the PCP referred a DO. The DO poked some acupuncture needles into his lower back and threw his weight onto my friend while doing some stretching exercises. I imagine this is the "osteopathic manipulative treatment" (is this what chiropractors do?) that they learn that MD's don't learn in med school, but I really don't know for certain. My friend didn't really feel any better, but was told that he should be better after 5 sessions. Afterward, outside the DO's office, there was another room to receive a massage. This made me realize there were differences in DO and MD practices.

On the other hand, I spoke with a DO who was the head of surgery at a hospital. His role probably doesn't differ at all from that of an MD in that same position.

Are you sure your friend saw a DO and not a chiropractor or something else? If it was a DO then that's weird, and he definitely does not represent the vast majority of DO-educated physicians.

 

[Stumpyman]

This is what I thought too, but a friend of mine recently had back pain and the PCP referred a DO. The DO poked some acupuncture needles into his lower back and threw his weight onto my friend while doing some stretching exercises. I imagine this is the "osteopathic manipulative treatment" (is this what chiropractors do?) that they learn that MD's don't learn in med school, but I really don't know for certain. My friend didn't really feel any better, but was told that he should be better after 5 sessions. Afterward, outside the DO's office, there was another room to receive a massage. This made me realize there were differences in DO and MD practices.

On the other hand, I spoke with a DO who was the head of surgery at a hospital. His role probably doesn't differ at all from that of an MD in that same position.

I definitely don't think your friend saw a DO. If he did, this must be a special case. DOs (or any other doctors) don't use acupuncture. And the whole stretching exercise along with throwing his weight onto your friend sounds way too much like a chiropractor.

 

[Lewist02]

This is what I thought too, but a friend of mine recently had back pain and the PCP referred a DO. The DO poked some acupuncture needles into his lower back and threw his weight onto my friend while doing some stretching exercises. I imagine this is the "osteopathic manipulative treatment" (is this what chiropractors do?) that they learn that MD's don't learn in med school, but I really don't know for certain. My friend didn't really feel any better, but was told that he should be better after 5 sessions. Afterward, outside the DO's office, there was another room to receive a massage. This made me realize there were differences in DO and MD practices.

On the other hand, I spoke with a DO who was the head of surgery at a hospital. His role probably doesn't differ at all from that of an MD in that same position.

I know a D.O at PCOM who also does acupuncture work, but it is in no way a part of our normal curriculum. Any doctor, D.O or M.D can receive certification in acupuncture. I suppose you could make the argument that a D.O may be more willing to learn, considering our take on alternative approaches and integrative medicine, but anyone can have an interest in integ. med.

And I do believe there can be differences between D.Os and M.Ds, but as your example proves, it does not encompass all D.Os, just ones that integrate OMM into their daily practice. Many D.Os, like the head of surgery you spoke with, no longer use their OMM training, however, regardless of the specialty, I know many that do (for ex. one of our Onc professors explained how he will use Muscle Energy or Counterstrain techniques on women after a mastectomy).

As as for the whole, "holistic" approach, I think we are seeing this integrated into medical curriculum and training in general, regardless of D.O/M.D. Maybe not at every MD institution, but at many.

 

[thesauce]

I definitely don't think your friend saw a DO. If he did, this must be a special case. DOs (or any other doctors) don't use acupuncture. And the whole stretching exercise along with throwing his weight onto your friend sounds way too much like a chiropractor.

Definitely not true. Some docs offer this in their practice.

 

[Lewist02]

I definitely don't think your friend saw a DO. If he did, this must be a special case. DOs (or any other doctors) don't use acupuncture. And the whole stretching exercise along with throwing his weight onto your friend sounds way too much like a chiropractor.

There are actually a lot of similarities between OMM and the techniques a chiropractor would use. The difference is that we receive a lot more training and a much larger medical foundation for our manipulation. If you look at research studies, the majority of injuries related to manipulation come from chiropractors (less than 1% of serious complications came from Osteopaths). I can't remember the exact study I read, but the numbers could also be discounting the fact that perhaps more people will see a chiropractor for musculoskeletal dysfunctions because of their lack of knowledge about OMM, but if I remember correctly, the study was well controlled with a large sample size and was statistically significant.

Anyway - the technique the previous poster was explaining is what we call Muscle Energy followed by HVLA (High Velocity/Low Amplitude). We do a series of "stretches", although these are really a special position regarding the muscle that is dysfunctional allowing antagonist muscle groups, which activate the Golgi tendon apparatus, to inhibit the agonist (or dysfunctional) muscle, allowing for us to stretch further into that muscle's barrier and continue with the treatment until the dysfunction is normalized. The HVLA was being preformed for some sort of articular dysfunction, where we reposition the individual into their articular barrier and add a fast thrust to move the articulation into the normal positioning (you usually hear a pop).

A chiropractor will have similar techniques, so I can't say for sure if the guy was a D.O or not, but it sounds very much like he was an OMM specialist.

And sorry if this was way too much info than anyone wanted 🙂 Just trying to shed a little light.

 

[Bacchus]

Acupuncture isn't taught at osteopathic medical schools. It is extra certification. There's consistent acupuncture demonstrations at PCOM d/t the above mentioned faculty member.

I just wanted to reiterate we don't all believe in it and "alternative medicine" is not standard in the curriculum.

 

[Lewist02]

Acupuncture isn't taught at osteopathic medical schools. It is extra certification. There's consistent acupuncture demonstrations at PCOM d/t the above mentioned faculty member.

I just wanted to reiterate we don't all believe in it and "alternative medicine" is not standard in the curriculum.

Yeah, at least at PCOM, there is no strong emphasis on alternative medicine practices. I know after going to AOA, some students from other schools said that it is integrated into their curriculum, but other than our integrative med club bringing in speakers and demonstrations, we really don't get much exposure.

The only exposure we do get is professors who add alternative approaches just so we can inform our patients of how effective a treatment they may be considering is (like Botanicals, or Complimentary and Alternative Med). And at the end, the majority of them are either ineffective, unsafe or inefficacious, or need further studies. The only real difference in our curriculum will be OMM, which is about an hour or two a week additional to everything else.