The immediate effect of osteopathic cervical spine mobilization on median nerve mechanosensitivity: A triple-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial

Abstract

This study has highlighted that, as expected, cervical mobilization has an effect at reducing upper limb neural mechanical sensitivity. However, there may be other factors interacting with neural mechanosensitivity outside of somatic influences such as psychological expectation bias. Further research could utilize the methodology employed here, but with other treatment areas to help develop neural tissue research. In addition to this, further exploration of psychological factors should be made such as utilizing complex top-down cognitive processing theories such as the neuromatrix or categorization theories to help further understand cognitive biases such as the placebo effect, which is commonly ignored in osteopathic research, as well as other areas of science, and which would further complete a holistic perspective.

Immediate biomechanical, systemic, and interoceptive effects of myofascial release on the thoracic spine: A randomised controlled trial

“…However, again, many more studies are needed to be conducted utilising psychology to understand the relationship between psychological bias, osteopathy and the complex interoceptive pathway. These psychological biases have been noted in other studies (e.g., Whelan et al, 2017) and were noted again here with global increases in some places between baseline and post-condition scores for control, sham and MFR. Therefore, it seems important to understand any placebo effects that might be caused.…”

“…Inclinometers are instruments used to measure the ROM of a joint with respect to a particular level or angle and has been previously used in several trials assessing cervical, thoracic, lumbar spine and median nerve ROM where all authors concluded moderate to good reliability (ICC = 0.6-0.9) (MacDermid, Arumugan, Vincent, Payne & So, 2015;MacDermid, Arumugam, Vincent & Carroll, 2014;Prushansky, Deryi & Jabarreen, 2010;Whelan et al, 2017).…”

The Immediate Effect of Therapeutic Touch and Deep Touch Pressure on Range of Motion, Interoceptive Accuracy and Heart Rate Variability: A Randomized Controlled Trial With Moderation Analysis

“…The area for the OMT mobilization in this present study is called the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) (the jaw joint area), which involves multi-vector guided movement of the TMJ. It is typical to use a measure called ROM when measuring the effectiveness of OMT treatments, which is the ROM of a bodily limb or other appendage at a fixed point (such as the head pointing forward) to a tolerable starching point in a fixed direction (this could be rotating the head left or right, for example) ( Whelan et al, 2017 ).…”

“…Again, it is predicted that both will increase, but there will be little differences between them as they will affect the vagal nerve in a similar way. For the third outcome measure, range of motion (ROM), which is a standard OMT measure, it is hypothesized to increase (for all areas) as a result of the OMT but not deep-touch, which is commonly found in OMT research ( Whelan et al, 2017 ). Age, BMI, and gender will be explored as covariates as these could potentially confound the study findings.…”

Quantifying the Elasticity Properties of the Median Nerve during the Upper Limb Neurodynamic Test 1

“…Previous research has combined ULNT1 with psychological questionnaires such as the visual analogue scale (VAS) to assess prognosis and treatment response [ 6 , 7 ]. However, these psychological surveys are unable to rule out the effects of placebos, cognitive, and other psychophysiological alterations.…”