Osteopathic Medicine in Pain Management

Osteopathy is a philosophy of medical care that combines the needs of the patients with their current practices and specialities of medicine but with an emphasis on the inter-relationships between structure and function and appreciation of the body’s ability to heal itself.

Osteopathic physicians conduct osteopathic structural examinations, applying palpation skills that provide clues to the underlying mechanism of injury by focusing on symmetry/asymmetry tissue changes. Palpation diagnosis and insights lead to further questions, examinations and tests to understand the underlying factors associated with the pain.

The examinations findings lead the physician to explore functional demand issues associated with potential mechanisms of repeated injury or of cumulative microtrauma resulting from postural occupational, habitual or ergonomic stressors, hence allowing them to gradually reduce the pain.