{"id":1715,"date":"2022-04-13T11:02:20","date_gmt":"2022-04-13T11:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmjopen\/?p=1715"},"modified":"2022-04-13T11:02:20","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T11:02:20","slug":"promising-evidence-that-osteopathy-may-relieve-musculoskeletal-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmjopen\/2022\/04\/13\/promising-evidence-that-osteopathy-may-relieve-musculoskeletal-pain\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cPromising evidence\u201d that osteopathy may relieve musculoskeletal pain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><span style=\"color: #000000\">But little to back its use in children, or for the treatment of migraine or irritable bowel syndrome<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">There\u2019s \u201cpromising evidence\u201d that osteopathy, the physical manipulation of the body\u2019s tissues and bones, may relieve the pain associated with musculoskeletal conditions, <a href=\"https:\/\/bmjopen.bmj.com\/content\/12\/4\/e053468\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">finds a review<\/a> of the available clinical evidence, published in the open access journal\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/bmjopen.bmj.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em><b>BMJ Open<\/b><\/em><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">But there\u2019s little or only inconclusive evidence to back its use in children, and for the treatment of migraine or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), the findings show.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Osteopathy, which was first developed in the late 1800s in the USA, is based on the principle that the structure (anatomy) and function (physiology) of a person\u2019s body are intertwined. It aims to repair imbalances in this relationship.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">In common with other forms of complementary medicine, osteopathy has grown in popularity over the past decade, particularly for the treatment of musculoskeletal disorders. The researchers therefore wanted to assess its safety and effectiveness for different conditions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">They trawled research databases for systematic reviews and pooled data analyses (meta analyses) of relevant randomised controlled clinical trials, published up to November 2021.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Only trials carried out by doctors with osteopathic training or osteopaths were included.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">The search uncovered nine systematic reviews or meta analyses conducted between 2013 and 2020, involving 55 primary trials and 3740 participants.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">The systematic reviews reported on the use of osteopathy in a wide range of conditions, including acute and chronic non-specific low back pain, chronic non-specific neck pain, chronic non-cancer pain, primary headache, and IBS.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">The pooled data analyses reported that osteopathy is more effective than other approaches in reducing pain and improving physical function in acute\/chronic non-specific lower back and neck pain and in chronic pain not associated with cancer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">The other comparative approaches included dummy treatment (placebo), sham osteopathy, light touch therapy, no treatment, waiting list, conventional treatment, physiotherapy or other forms of complementary medicine.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">But small sample size, contradictory findings, and wide variations in study design meant that the evidence on the effectiveness of osteopathy for use in children with various conditions, ranging from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder to asthma and infantile colic, and the treatment of migraine and IBS, was limited or inconclusive.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">No serious side effects associated with the therapy were reported in the 7 systematic reviews that evaluated them, although only two defined how these were measured.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u201cThis overview suggests that [osteopathy] could be effective in the management of musculoskeletal disorders, specifically with regard to [chronic non-specific low back pain] and [low back pain] in pregnant women or [those who have just had a baby],\u201d write the researchers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u201cIn contrast, inconclusive evidence was derived from [systematic reviews] analysing osteopathy efficacy on paediatric conditions, primary headache, and IBS,\u201d they add.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u201cNevertheless, based on the low number of studies, some of which are of moderate quality, our overview highlights the need to perform further well-conducted [systematic reviews] as well as clinical trials (which have to follow the specific guidelines for non-pharmacological treatments) to confirm and extend the possible use of [osteopathy] in some conditions as well as its safety,\u201d they conclude.<\/span><!--TrendMD v2.4.8--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>But little to back its use in children, or for the treatment of migraine or irritable bowel syndrome There\u2019s \u201cpromising evidence\u201d that osteopathy, the physical manipulation of the body\u2019s tissues and bones, may relieve the pain associated with musculoskeletal conditions, finds a review of the available clinical evidence, published in the open access journal\u00a0BMJ Open. [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmjopen\/2022\/04\/13\/promising-evidence-that-osteopathy-may-relieve-musculoskeletal-pain\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":406,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[511,15012],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news","category-press-release"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>\u201cPromising evidence\u201d that osteopathy may relieve musculoskeletal pain - BMJ Open<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmjopen\/2022\/04\/13\/promising-evidence-that-osteopathy-may-relieve-musculoskeletal-pain\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cPromising evidence\u201d that osteopathy may relieve musculoskeletal pain - BMJ Open\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"But little to back its use in children, or for the treatment of migraine or irritable bowel syndrome There\u2019s \u201cpromising evidence\u201d that osteopathy, the physical manipulation of the body\u2019s tissues and bones, may relieve the pain associated with musculoskeletal conditions, finds a review of the available clinical evidence, published in the open access journal\u00a0BMJ Open. 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