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.

Osteopathy in the UK, Australia, Canada & NZ

Outside of the United States, osteopathy varies heavily in its acceptance of modern medicine. In some places, the original teachings of Andrew Still are practiced. In others, it is closer to modern medicine. Nowhere else is it as closely integrated as in the US. Osteopathy was intended by its founder to be a reform movement of medical practice, the orthodox medical profession was more successful in other countries at preventing the establishment and development of the osteopathic profession than in the USA. Until recently osteopathy was practiced primarily in the English speaking world.

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In the United Kingdom osteopathy developed as a distinct profession. The first osteopathic college was established in the UK in 1917 by a Scottish man, Littlejohn, who had studied under Dr Andrew Taylor Still. Littlejohn altered the osteopathic curriculum to include the study of physiology, the school he founded in the UK, the British School of Osteopathy was the first osteopathic education institution outside the USA and it still exists today http://www.bso.ac.uk/. British osteopaths use manipulative techniques based on the philosophy of Dr Andrew Taylor-Still, but are not medical doctors, although some medical doctors undertake osteopathic training as a postgraduate interest. The profession is subject to statutory regulation following the passing of the Osteopathy Act in 1993. The General Osteopathic Council (GOsC) http://www.osteopathy.org.uk/was established by the Act to regulate the profession, to protect the public by maintaining a register of practitioners, investigating allegations of professional misconduct and ensuring the quality of training is adequate. Since 2001, there has been graduate only entry to the register. There are 7 approved training institutions in the UK. There are approximatley 5000 registered osteopaths in the UK, a small but growing profession, for the sake of comparison there are approx 36,000 physiotherapists. Most medical services in the UK are delivered through the state funded National Health Service, osteopathy is largely excluded from this with most osteopaths working in private practice. Several large studies in the UK have produced evidence of the cost-effectiveness and clinical effectiveness of manipulation in the management of low back pain, the latest being the UK Back pain Exercise And Manipulation (UK BEAM) trial, http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6963/3/16, http://www.osteopathy.org.uk/media/prdetails.php?id=24. There is an increasing interest in osteopathy amongst patients, barriers remain though to osteopathic provision within the state system; not the least being hostility from the orthodox medical profession and physiotherapists. Many UK osteopaths are also naturopaths, with one osteopathic college offering a dual training in osteopathy & naturopathy (the British College of Osteopathic Medicine) and another offering a post-graduate programme (the College of Osteopaths).

Related Topics:
United Kingdom - National Health Service - Naturopathy

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In Australia and New Zealand the profession has developed along the same lines, until recently neither country trained its own practitioners and relied on migrants from the UK. Likewise, each country maintains a state approved list of practitioners and health insurance reimbursement is available for osteopathic treatment. In Canada osteopaths are trained along similar lines to those in Britain and other Commonwealth Realm countries, although US trained osteopathic physicians may also practice there. .

Related Topics:
Australia - New Zealand - Canada - Commonwealth Realm

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In all four countries osteopathy is on the boundary between orthodox and complementary / alternative medicine, with a great variety of approaches and philosophies being brought to the practice. The model of osteopathy employed is essentially a drug free system of manual therapy. Osteopaths are trained in standard medical differential diagnosis and have diagnostic competencies similar to primary care physicians, but with a scope of practice limited mainly to musculoskeletal conditions. Osteopaths in all four countries do not have prescribing rights, although the UK Government has included osteopathy in the list of professions allied to medicine that may be granted prescribing rights in the future. Unless separately qualified as a medical doctor or holders of a doctorate degree, osteopaths in Australia, New Zealand or the UK do not use the honorific title of Dr. This is contested by some osteopaths and there is a campaign to use the title Dr. There is a debate on what differentiates an osteopath from a chiropractor from a physiotherapist in these countries, rather than the DO / MD debate in the USA.

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