TL;DR: Studies show they do the same things as and have the same effects as Medical Doctors.
I don’t understand why an MD would want any association with the pseudoscience that osteopathy is. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osteopathy Marketing I guess.
Submitted 8 months ago by Aatube@kbin.melroy.org to youshouldknow@lemmy.world
TL;DR: Studies show they do the same things as and have the same effects as Medical Doctors.
I don’t understand why an MD would want any association with the pseudoscience that osteopathy is. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osteopathy Marketing I guess.
In the US, the AMA has always artificially limited the supply of MDs. Over the last century osteopathic medical schools basically adopted all the same philosophies of evidence based medicine as “regular” medical schools, maybe with a vestigial course or two on spinal alignment. Both have the same licensing requirements.
At this point, DOs in the US are basically just regular doctors with lower MCAT scores and undergraduate GPAs, and indeed, they basically fill the role of providing doctors to less lucrative specialties and regions.
The main bottleneck in training new doctors (both MD and DO) is that federal funding for medical residency slots have remained mostly unchanged since 1996. Some hospitals have been able to pay for extra slots out of their clinical revenues, but they’ll be facing more financial pressures because of the Big Beautiful Bill.
I don’t understand a it as well, they’re quacks here in Germany
No clue why you’re being upvotes when the very first paragraph of the source you cited contradicts you. DOs are great, and definitely not pseudoscience peddlers
It is distinct from osteopathic medicine, which is a branch of the medical profession in the United States.
Why do they keep a name referring to a pseudo-science then?
It is as if astrophysicists were using the name Doctor of Astrology and then claiming they are not the same as the astrology pseudoscience. Why would they do use this name then?
That’s not a contradiction, the fact that that is the page you get from searching the term is exactly their point.
Looking at the page Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, it even seems to point to both having the same origin (1874 USA) and later changing:
Osteopathic medicine (as defined and regulated in the United States) emerged historically from the quasi-medical practice of osteopathy, but has become a distinct and proper medical profession.
Be it resolved, that the American Osteopathic Association institute a policy, both officially in our publications and individually on a conversational basis, to use the terms osteopathic medicine in place of the word osteopathy and osteopathic physician and surgeon in place of osteopath; the words osteopathy and osteopath being reserved for historical, sentimental, and informal discussions only
Though also…
DO schools provide an additional 300–500 hours in the study of hands-on manual medicine and the body’s musculoskeletal system, which is referred to as osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM). Osteopathic manipulation is a pseudoscience.
and from the related sources:
Mark Crislip also pointed out that DOs are using less and less osteopathic manipulation in their practice. This is a good thing, and hopefully it will eventually completely fade away. Essentially we need to distinguish between osteopathic medicine, which is mostly equivalent to standard medicine, and osteopathic manipulation, which is pure pseudoscience akin to straight chiropractic.
Yet, why do they keep the term ‘osteopathy’ when the don’t do osteopathy, but real, honest osteopathic medicine which would usually be denominated as orthopaedic.
CrackaAssCracka@lemmy.world 8 months ago
A lot of DOs go to Osteopathic medical schools because getting into MD schools is crazy competitive. It’s just another path to becoming a doctor that’s an option if you don’t get into a US MD school. The medicine curriculum is basically the same between the two. Though I’ve worked with a bunch of DOs who believe in osteopathy and practice it.
acockworkorange@mander.xyz 8 months ago
So they’re schools of medicine with just enough quackery sprinkled on top to receive a different name. And some of their alumni embrace the quackery while others reject it.
How would you know the DO you’re about to see is a quack? You don’t I guess. If you’re risk averse, you’ll just call them all quacks and find a doctor without the quackery pixie dust.
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 8 months ago
This might come as a shock, but that “MD” behind their name isn’t a guarantee they dont hold quackish beliefs either.
roguetrick@lemmy.world 8 months ago
It’s not even don’t get in. They’re rigorous institutions that are just as competitive. They just make you take a class on those dumb manipulations.
CrackaAssCracka@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Oh they’re definitely not judged the same. There’s a reason DOs interested in the more sought after specialties rarely try for MD programs. When you have a bunch of alpha nerds who base their self worth on test scores and other stuff like that, you get arbitrary stratification. And I’ve seen good doctors fail STEP tests and shit doctors who graduated from Harvard. There’s always those situations when some happen to be good at the stuff a system deems worthwhile but suck at being a person and vice versa.