What osteopathic manipulation techniques are clinically effective?

Question

Which ones are more effective than allopathic medicine? Which ones are not as effective?
Which ones are not even shown to work at all?
I have read some stuff about people using "energy fields"?? I am embarrassed that this is part of D.O. medicine....

There have to be some studies documenting the efficacy of manipulation. Otherwise, how is medicine a science if it does not test hypothesis?

There are definitely papers on efficacy of surgery. Can anyone direct me to papers on efficacy of manipulation?

In addition, the comment below makes little sense. What study says that parachutes don't work? Obviously if you use a parachute you survive, and if you don't you die.

Answer 1

Well for one, "energy fields" are not part of osteopathic medicine. That is probably someone who specializes in Complementary medicine. Read the JAOA, there are always articles about studies on OMT, or do a search on Pubmed. The most effective thing would be for anything musculoskeltal for obvious reasons, probably the most common complaint treated with OMT is Low back pain.

Answer 2

Are you embarrassed that dangerous drugs and un-proven surgeries are a part of D.O. medicine?

Have drugs and/or surgery been proven more effective than alternative approaches? (No, the comparison research has not been done.)

There are NO placebo-controlled, prospective, double-blind trials comparing surgery to anything! Every surgery is an individual 'experiment'.

Your bias appears to be that 'real medicine' is by de-fault the safe and effective choice. Yet, by your own comments, prescription drugs and surgeries have NEVER been shown to be more effective than traditional therapies used for centuries. So-called mainstream medicine has never proven its 'superior' position. It has never even tested that hypthosis!

Are you 'embarrassed' to use or recommend the use of parachutes when jumping out of a flying airplane? According to a major meta-analysis on the efficacy of the use of parachutes published a few years ago in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), there are NO scientific studies documenting the efficacy of parachutes. Obviously, only a quack would use one!

Best wishes and good luck.