NCT04387006

Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment Induces Functional Connectivity Changes

Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment Induces Functional Connectivity Changes: a Randomized Manual Placebo-controlled Trial

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 30 (actual)
• Sponsor: I.R.C.C.S. Fondazione Santa Lucia · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 40 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment (OMT) is a whole-body intervention mainly focused on correcting the somatic dysfunctions present in different regions of the body. Osteopathic research to date has mostly been concerned with various clinical conditions such as musculoskeletal disorders and primary headache. The neurophysiological effects underlying clinical improvements are still under debate. Although models explaining the therapeutic effects of OMT include the potential for higher brain mechanism, OMT effects on functional brain connectivity is not fully understood and still lacking in healthy adults. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) research includes several different approaches to estimate cortical functions. Several of these approaches have demonstrated functional brain changes associated with OMT. Using Arterial Spin Labeling MRI, recently was demonstrated that the treatment of somatic dysfunctions induces cerebral perfusion changes in asymptomatic young participant. Thus, the aim of this study is to explore the neural correlates associated with OMT effect in terms of cerebral functional connectivity, as derived by complex network analysis of resting state fMRI data recorded in asymptomatic young volunteers with somatic dysfunctions

Conditions

• Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	OMT	OMT techniques were focused on correcting the dysfunctions found during the initial physical examination and included articular and myofascial techniques, balanced ligamentous tension, visceral manipulations and osteopathy in the cranial field
OTHER	MP	MP treatment was performed by the same osteopaths who performed OMT and was carried out in the same hospital setting. P treatment consisted of a passive touch without joint mobilization in a protocolled order. The osteopaths were standing next to the bed, they touched lumbar and dorsal spine of the subjects in prone position for 10 minutes, and then in supine position, they touched for 10 minutes the shoulders, the hips, then the neck, the sternum and the chest were touched for 5 minutes each. Another researcher on the placebo protocol specifically trained the osteopaths.

Timeline

• Start date: 2017-09-30
• Primary completion: 2018-07-30
• Completion: 2019-01-08
• First posted: 2020-05-13
• Last updated: 2020-05-14

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Italy