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Osteopaths in the USA
Feb. 8th, 2008 07:57 pmIn Montreal, I discovered the joy of visiting Osteopaths. An Osteopath managed to cure Leif's colic and let us sleep, and unlike a chiropractor, a treatment from Martine at Santenergie on the plateau of Montreal (shameless plug) would actually stay in effect for more than 20 minutes (Sometimes for weeks at a time).
Coming to the US, however, means learning a whole new variety of Osteo. Osteopathy was written into law early on, and has grown up as a full alternative to medical doctors - including the ability to prescribe medication. In practice what happens is that Osteopaths wind up in family practice as just another variant of MDs. The amount of "Osteopath" training that they've had compared to an MD turns out not to be that big anyway.
All hope isn't actually lost, though. There are two groups in the US, the American Academy of Osteopathy (Members recognised by the letters FAAO after their names), an the American Osteopathic Assocation (, AOA). Physicians can be fellowshipped into one or the other of these groups and they have different philosophies.
So there are three types of Osteopaths here:
1) Regular doctors (For all that it matters for the patients coming in)
2) Regular doctors who will practice some forms of Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine, but may not perform all techniques, and whom are more likely to be involved in "Integrative medicine" - helping find overall wholistic solutions to problems that might include manipulation, but might include other naturopathic solutions.
3) Osteopaths who specialise in manipulative medicine.
The downside to #3 is that these are people who've taken full medical degrees, and then had to further it with what an Osteopath would take at home. They're expensive, often don't accept any form of medical insurance, and are generally part of private practices.
With some back troubles I've been having recently, I managed to find a doctor in the #2 category who explained to me how this all works (followed by us figuring out that there's more to it than he can fix. But that's another story for later). He very kindly wrote it out for me on a napkin, so I'm copying it here before I blow my nose it in by accident. =)
Coming to the US, however, means learning a whole new variety of Osteo. Osteopathy was written into law early on, and has grown up as a full alternative to medical doctors - including the ability to prescribe medication. In practice what happens is that Osteopaths wind up in family practice as just another variant of MDs. The amount of "Osteopath" training that they've had compared to an MD turns out not to be that big anyway.
All hope isn't actually lost, though. There are two groups in the US, the American Academy of Osteopathy (Members recognised by the letters FAAO after their names), an the American Osteopathic Assocation (, AOA). Physicians can be fellowshipped into one or the other of these groups and they have different philosophies.
So there are three types of Osteopaths here:
1) Regular doctors (For all that it matters for the patients coming in)
2) Regular doctors who will practice some forms of Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine, but may not perform all techniques, and whom are more likely to be involved in "Integrative medicine" - helping find overall wholistic solutions to problems that might include manipulation, but might include other naturopathic solutions.
3) Osteopaths who specialise in manipulative medicine.
The downside to #3 is that these are people who've taken full medical degrees, and then had to further it with what an Osteopath would take at home. They're expensive, often don't accept any form of medical insurance, and are generally part of private practices.
With some back troubles I've been having recently, I managed to find a doctor in the #2 category who explained to me how this all works (followed by us figuring out that there's more to it than he can fix. But that's another story for later). He very kindly wrote it out for me on a napkin, so I'm copying it here before I blow my nose it in by accident. =)
