Osteopathy

Osteopathy is the body of medicine that originally used strictly manipulative techniques for correcting somatic abnormalities thought to cause disease and inhibit recovery. However, over the past century, osteopathy has embraced the full spectrum of medicine (to different degrees across the world), including the use of prescription drugs and surgery, in addition to manipulative techniques. Osteopathy or osteopathic medicine is thus both a philosophy and a set of manipulative techniques.

Cranial Osteopathy

Cranial osteopathy is a contested issue within the profession; it is not known what proportion of osteopaths are practitioners. Most medical insurance companies will not re-imburse for 'cranial' treatment as it is not based on orthodox diagnostic criteria. In the USA there is at least one documented conviction of a chiropractor for falsely describing a cranial treatment regime as spinal manipulation http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/cranial.html.

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So called cranial osteopaths are osteopaths that claim they are trained to feel a very subtle, rhythmical shape change that is present in all body tissues. This is known variously as the involuntary mechanism or the cranial rhythm. The movement is said to be of very small amplitude, therefore it takes practitioners with a very finely developed sense of touch to feel it. This rhythm was first described in the early 1900's by Dr. William G. Sutherland and its existence is not accepted by mainstream scientific community. The theory underlying cranio-sacral therapy is rejected by many osteopaths and most orthodox medical doctors as the cranial bones fuse by the end of adolescence and no research has ever demonstrated that manual manipulation can move the individual bones. The brain does pulsate, but this is thought to be exclusively related to the cardiovascular system http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=8090842&dopt=Abstract. Several studies have looked at inter-operator reproducibility of diagnostic findings when working with the 'cranial rhythm' and found there to be little agreement http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=8090842&dopt=Abstract

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How this mechanism is related to health / disease is not established, neither is the relationship between holding the head and re-establishing health. Many dismiss cranial osteopathy as pseudoscience. Moreover, cranial osteopathy is often marketed as being especially suitable for new born babies and young children. All in all, this practice appears to be popular with patients and this may be a significant factor for osteopaths embracing it. Cranio-sacral therapy is based on the same principles but the practitioners are not qualified osteopaths. Chiropractic has developed similar techniques known as sacro - occipital therapy (SOT) or craniopathy.

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