Vertebral, internal carotid artery flow during vascular premanipulative testing using duplex Doppler ultrasound measurements 
International Journal of Osteopathic Medicine
The objective of this review was to systematically review cervical artery blood flow behavior by duplex Doppler ultrasonography with different cervical movements often used during vascular premanipulative testing ... ABSTRACT

Consent in osteopathy: A cross sectional survey of patients' information and process preferences 
International Journal of Osteopathic Medicine
Consent is an ethical and legal requirement for any therapeutic process. It is the responsibility of healthcare practitioners to respect patients' rights of autonomy and to receive their consent. The United Kingdom law currently states that all relevant risks, which a reasonable patient would want to know, must be told to them. Consequently the General Osteopathic Council's "Code of Practice" includes specific expectations in this area. As a result risk disclosure and informed consent has become of increasing importance within osteopathy, particular in today's increasingly litigious society. Osteopathy is a patient centered approach to healthcare; as such research to determine patients' expectations and preferences is needed ... ABSTRACT

Spinal HVLA-Manipulation in Acute Nonspecific LBP: A Double Blinded Randomized Controlled Trial in Comparison With Diclofenac and Placebo 
Spine
This study investigates in acute non-specific low back pain (LBP) the effectiveness of spinal high-velocity-low-amplitude (HVLA) manipulation compared with the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) diclofenac and with placebo ... ABSTRACT

Why reservations remain: A critical reflection about the systematic review and meta-analysis “Osteopathic manipulative treatment for low back pain” by Licciardone et al. 
Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies
In 2005 John Licciardone, Angela Brimhall, and Linda King published a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials with the title: Osteopathic manipulative treatment for low back pain. The conclusions of systematic review and meta-analysis depend highly on the right search strategy, the quality of the included studies (internal validity) and the error-free, unbiased and transparent evaluation of the review. As illustrated by the following article Licciardone's review includes elements that could lead to biased results. It is concluded that Licciardone et al. focused too much on the statistical significance, and overlooked that the problem of the review lay not in the calculations but in the quality and compilation of the studies ... ABSTRACT

Central adaptation of pain perception in response to rehabilitation of musculoskeletal pain 
Pain Physician 
Understanding the mechanisms of long-standing musculoskeletal pain and adaptations in response to physical rehabilitation is important for developing optimal treatment strategies. The influence of central adaptations of pain perception in response to rehabilitation of musculoskeletal pain remains unclear. The objective of this trial is to investigate the effect of neck/shoulder resistance training on pressure pain threshold of the painful neck/shoulder muscles and a non-painful reference muscle of the leg in adults with neck/shoulder pain ... MORE

Vertebral deformity arising from an accelerated 'creep' mechanism 
European Spine Journal 
Vertebral deformities often occur in patients who recall no trauma, and display no evident fracture on radiographs. We hypothesize that vertebral deformity can occur by a gradual creep mechanism which is accelerated following minor damage. "Creep" is continuous deformation under constant load ... ABSTRACT

A replication of the study 'Adverse effects of spinal manipulation'  
Chiropractic & Manual Therapies
The use of a treatment by health care providers requires examination of the evidence of effectiveness and assessment of the evidence for risks or adverse events caused by the treatment. Spinal manipulation therapy has strong evidence for treatment of low back pain, neck pain, headache and migraine. This is supported by numerous systematic reviews of a large number of randomized controlled trials ... MORE

Osteopathic manipulative treatment in obese patients with chronic low back pain: A pilot study 
Manual Therapy
Obesity is frequently associated with various musculoskeletal disorders including chronic low back pain. Osteopathy is a discipline emphasizing the conservative treatment of the disease in a holistic vision. The authors designed a randomized controlled study to investigate whether osteopathic manipulative treatment combined with specific exercises is more effective than SE alone in obese patients with cLBP ... ABSTRACT

Identification of distinctive characteristics, principles, practices of the osteopathic physician in the current healthcare system  
Osteopathic Family Physician
The osteopathic medical profession has distinct attributes. The purpose of this study is to identify current perceptions among osteopathic medical students, residents and practicing physicians (teaching and nonteaching) to gauge the dynamics and perspectives of the distinctive characterisitcs, practices and principles of the osteopathic medical profession ... MORE

Do osteopathic medical students maintain their osteopathic identity in a dual accredited training hospital system?
Osteopathic Family Physician
Given the unprecedented growth of the osteopathic profession in the past few decades, osteopathic clinical education has been turbulent. Maintaining a unique osteopathic professional identity during the years of clinical training has been difficult because of limited DO perceptors, time constraints and the hesitancy of MD preceptors to embrace osteopathic tenets as well as manual medicine. The authors' objective was to delineate student feelings about sustaining their osteopathic uniqueness in a "dually accredited" system and the ability of the system to meet the needs of osteopathic students ... MORE

An article concerning the identity of osteopathy in Europe is in progress. We'll be able to give you more information in our next newsletter.

• The 9th International Symposium of Osteopathy in Nantes (IOR) will be held Friday 16th and Saturday 17th November 2012 (Faculty of Pharmacology, University of Nantes, France).