[Osteopathic medicine]

Osteopathy is originated in the 19th century in the United States. Andrew Taylor Still seek for an alternative medical system to the orthodox medicine largely empirical and advocating bloodletting, calomel, etc., all of which was resumed with terms like" heroic medicine". Osteopathy as other alternative medical practices (homeopathy, eclecticism, etc.) based on rational and metaphysical postulates as vitalism or the fact that man is a divinely ordained machine. Still's approach was essentially manual and based on manipulation of the joints. Today osteopaths challenge these dogmas and seek to agree their practice within scientific biomedical standards. Even if strong randomized clinical trials are lacking, several surveys report how osteopathy gained public notoriety. Several recent meta-analyses pinpoint the benefit of the spinal manipulative treatment and even if there is no evidence that such an approach is superior to other advocated therapies there is no evidence that these therapies are more effective than the first one. The major indications for such a treatment are cervical and low back pain, either chronic or acute. The quality of the relationship between the practitioner and patient together with the placebo effect are important components of a treatment effect. Osteopathic education is an important aspect and only higher education institutions, i.e. universities can achieve and maintain adequate standards. Materia medica and surgery represent the two major therapeutic mainstreams in medicine; osteopathy considered as manual medicine could be the third one.