Toward Osteopathic Psychiatry

I was surprised to find that my commentary was referrenced as introduction of a psychiatry article, recently published in the Journal of American Osteopathic Association. Dr. Niall McLaren, a psychiatrist practicing in Australia, embraces the holistic approach of osteopathic medicine. Holistic approach to mental disorders or diseases should be emphasized instead of the reductionist approach which places priority of bio-chemical imbalances. This article is scholarly and an eye-opening. It is also interesting that an Australian medical doctor appreciates  the philosophy of osteopathic medicine.

• "In a thoughtful commentary, Delengocky1  offered three reasons why osteopathic medicine should remain parallel to but distinct from allopathic medicine. First, there is the widespread and growing interest in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in the United States. For a number of reasons, osteopathic medicine is an alternative to the reductionist biological tradition of allopathic medicine. Osteopathic medicine places great emphasis on the fact that the body is a self-regulating unit in which structure and function are reciprocally interrelated, providing a basis for a rational, holistic therapy.
• Second, he argued that because of the prevalence, the morbidity, and the huge cost of musculoskeletal disorders, there is a place for a form of medicine that sees a need to manage these debilitating conditions as more than “simply pains.”
• Third, he saw a political advantage in medicine having two “separate but equal” traditions to counter the aggressive push by nonmedical professions for equal rights (eg, laboratory investigation, prescribing, procedures) with physicians within their narrowly defined areas. Medicine must see the patient as a whole, must advance by rational scientific research and must be distinct from the paramedical professions, which seek to advance themselves by legislative advantage. Medicine is strengthened, not weakened, by having the two traditions of allopathic reductionist biology and osteopathic holism."

You can read the entire article at http://www.jaoa.org/cgi/reprint/110/12/725 or in the publication page above.