Research presentations
The research department of the BSO conducts regular presentations about what they've been working on. This is what happened.
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11/02/2014
This research presentation was based on Dr Brownhill’s PhD work. The Bernstein degrees-of-freedom problem is mainly concerned with the different ways mechanical systems can move in order to achieve the same goal. Human movement – e.g. in the spine – is never the same; countless motor units are working in unison to achieve the final movement. There are large amounts of freedom. In fact, the principle of redundancy is important not only in movement. All living systems contain mechanisms, which seem redundant but provide the system with a large adaptive capacity with which it can face in- and external challenged. As such, the degrees-of-freedom problem is not a problem of complexity, but rather of coordination. Applying this problem to osteopathy and spinal dysfunction, Dr Brownhill argues that non-pathological low back pain could to a large degree be the result of a failure in mechanical coordination of movement. Unfortunately, I missed the discussion following the talk, because I had to work in the BSO clinic. From what I could gather till then, the following questions arose from the lecture: Which particular circumstances render an individual prone to such failure? What justifies such a largely mechanical emphasis – and which contributing mechanisms are present? Here, I guess that proprioceptive feedback and muscle health are particularly important. And also, what are the implications for osteopathic practice? How can manual therapy assist motor unit coordination? Would we require a much more training-centred approach? Lots of material for further discussion… 23/10/2013 Today, Mrs Hillary Abbey presented the OsteoMAP programme, an approach to chronic pain patients who show signs of suffering and fear avoidance. The programme is very much based on mindfulness and other strategies lend from Cognitive Bahavioural Therapy. OsteoMAP is still in early development. It was interesting to hear of Hillary's personal experience with changing her usual osteopathic approach when working with OsteoMAP. It must be quite a struggle to constantly apply those techniques and encourage the patient to feel and reflect. I can see how this one day maybe will become best practice for long-term pain patients. This is a very thoughtful way of incorporating techniques from psychology into manual therapy. But I can also see how different a struggle it is for the practitioner to master this balancing act. |
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