Osteopathic Manipulation Makes a Neuropsychological Difference

N/AActive Not RecruitingNCT04058431

Midwestern University100 enrolled

Overview

Patients with pain commonly experience cognitive impairment. While symptoms of pain are effectively treated with osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT), the cognitive piece is vastly ignored. Pain-induced cognitive dysfunction can be severe and is particularly apparent in working memory and attention. There is good reason to also expect cognitive responsiveness to OMT. Previous research has already reported related psychiatric outcomes, including relief from stress, self-perception and anxiety, suggesting that OMT may produce more global effects on cortical processing than currently thought.

Patients with pain commonly experience cognitive impairment. While symptoms of pain are effectively treated with osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT), the cognitive piece is vastly ignored. Previous research has already reported related psychiatric outcomes, including relief from stress, self-perception and anxiety, suggesting that OMT may produce more global effects on cortical processing than currently thought. The current study is designed to extend previous research in several ways: 1. To describe the neuropsychological (NP) characteristics of adults with pain within an osteopathic and allopathic setting 2. To correlate NP with clinical outcomes (pain severity, number/location of osteopathic lesions) 3. To determine if OMT is associated with improved NP function. 4. To use saliva to measure cytokine concentration of IL-1β,IL-6, IL-8, TNF-α 5. To correlate cytokine concentrations with clinical outcomes (pain severity, number/location of osteopathic lesions, NP)

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

100

Conditions

Interventions

Osteopathic Manipulative TreatmentOTHER

Osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) is defined as the therapeutic application of manually guided forces by an osteopathic physician to improve physiologic function and/or support homeostasis that has been altered by somatic dysfunction. Somatic (body framework) dysfunction or altered function of related components is observed in the skeletal, arthrodial and myofascial structures, and their related vascular, lymphatic, and neural elements. Techniques can use a direct method where the restrictive barrier is engaged and a final activating force is applied to correct the somatic dysfunction, or an indirect method where the restrictive barrier is disengaged and the dysfunctional body part is moved away from the restrictive barrier until tissue tension is equal in one or all planes and directions

Control- No InterventionOTHER

This group will refrain from getting OMT while in the study.

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 40 Years

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: 1. 40 years of age or older; 2. seeking treatment for acute or chronic pain (neck, thoracic, shoulder, back) 3. gives a positive response to the item, "Have you had thinking problems because of your pain?"; 4. agree to forego extra-trial manipulation (e.g., massage, chiropractic, physical therapy); 5. Score \> 23 on the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status; 6. written informed consent. Exclusion Criteria: 1. recent (\< 2 month) or planned surgery within the duration of the study; 2. use of medication that could interfere with cytokine measurements; 3. recent (\< 2 month) changes to psychotropic medication within the duration of the study; 4. history of manipulation within the past six months. 5. diagnosed neurocognitive disorders; 6. contraindication to receiving OMT.