An Osteopathic Approach to Diagnosis and Treatment

The instruction of students in the concepts and
principles of osteopathic medicine, as well as in
the skills of manipulative medicine, began in a
tiny frame building in Kirksville, Missouri, almost 100 years ago today. Andrew Taylor Still
was the founder and professor of that school.
He wrote down many of his thoughts and ideas,
which were later collected into the first books
of this profession.
Since that time, only a few books have been
published on osteopathy, with most of the educational process relying on personal instruction
and demonstration. To add to this, much of the
information is scattered in obscure journals not
available to everyone. Those texts which are
available are generally limited to one or a few
types of techniques.
Our goal here has been to prepare a text that
organizes currently taught concepts and techniques into one comprehensive volume which
might then serve as a reference for osteopathic
medical students, as well as practicing physicians. The result is a book, which presents an
integrated method for both the diagnosis and
treatment of somatic and visceral problems manifesting in the soma. We have also added an extensive section on practical applications to serve
as a demonstration of examples of osteopathic
concepts integrated into the management of
some commonly encountered conditions.
The osteopathic approach to diagnosis and
treatment is unique. We hope this text will make
it more readily available to all osteopathic medical students