In 2016, Frontiers in Neuroscience published a paper by Giandomenico D’Alessandro and colleagues outlining a theoretical framework for osteopathy. The authors identified interoception and sensitization as key neurological concepts, therein, emphasizing an interoceptive paradigm. They propose that osteopathy uses touch to modify sensitization states using interoceptive pathways. In detail, osteopathy was hypothesized to produce anti-inflammatory and hyper-parasympathetic effects that change interoceptive processes terminating an ongoing low threshold inflammatory condition. This up-to-date neuroscientific paper might alter our comprehension of osteopathic effect mechanisms and inspire further investigations addressing this interesting field of research.
D’Alessandro, G., Cerritelli, F., Cortelli, P., 2016. Sensitization and interoception as key neurological concepts in osteopathy and other manual medicines. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 10(100).