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Cranial Osteopathy

Stitch

Muse
Stitch
Joined
Jul 5, 2004
Messages
667
I've been having a discussion about this on another board and a number of people keep exclaiming how wonderful this is, and yet I can find no studies as to its efficacy and indeed, the theory behind it screams quackery to me.

One person in particular describes how their young child (months old) cried a lot and had a noticeable ridge in their forehead. At the first treatment the person claims to have seen the ridge reduce and the crying was reduced. I assume due to the manipulation of a skull that has not yet ossified? The treatment continued for a number of sessions (months as far as I can gather), as the effect was only relatively short lived. Apparently the birth was ventouse (and is being blamed as the cause for the damage / ridge).

The osteopath (Steve Korth) claimed that the 3 (I'm it should be 4) bones at the front of the skull had jarred.

It sound to me like the skull hadn't quite settled after giving birth, but that it do so over the coming months quite naturally and that the cranial osteopathy had little or no effect.

Can anybody shed any more light on the possible initial condition (the ridge) and if it is common and if it does heal itself and over what period. Does anybody have any DBPC results for the efficacy of CO?
 
The_Fire said:
*Blinks*

Are you seriously telling me that they messed with the unsettled skull of a baby?!
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Indeed - I've tried to stay away from saying too much about that as it scares the heck out me just thinking about it. However, I haven't been able to find any studies or reports that such manipulation has caused damage. The osteopaths claim the load applied is equivalent to 5g which I doubt would be enough to manipulate the bones in a un-ossified skull anyway??
 
I've had cranial osteopathy. It's complete woo. The "manipulation" consisted of lightly touching the skin of my scalp and moving it infinitesimally with respect to my skull bones. If that's typical, as I believe it is, there's no possibility it could be harmful, even to an infant.

On the other hand there's no possibility that it could do any good either.

Rolfe.
 
Dr Adequate said:
[swiki]Craniosacral Therapy[/swiki]
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I had a read of that as part of my digging as well as looking on quackwatch. I have yet to find any kind of evidence that it works, regardless of rediculous explanations for how it works. It would seem that nobody even takes it seriously enough to conduct any research on it, including the osteopaths.
 
When and If I spawn, were some addlepate to come along and offer to rearrange my baby's skull, I believe they would get a rather unfortunate and violent reaction.

Then I may get angry.
 
There's a good article debunking craniosacral therapy (aka cranial osteopathy) which was written by a British midwife called Brid Hehir. It was published by the journal of the Royal College of Midwives and also by Spiked Health. You can find it by doing a Google search for Brid Hehir + craniosacral therapy.

Craniosacral therapists in the UK are currently working towards voluntary self regulation. As regulation normally means that minimum standards of training and competence have been met by a practitioner, this means that there's a good chance that British craniosacral therapists will end up with the appearance of being legitimately 'trained and competent' in their scientifically unproven therapy.

There's more about it on The Prince of Wales's Foundation for Integrated Health's website - click on 'What we do' and then click on 'Regulation' and scroll down to 'Contact details for regulatory bodies, forums and working groups'. There, not only will you learn more about the plans of the craniosacral therapists, but you will also find out about the many other CAM groups who are clamouring for respectability with a little bit of help from HRH and his Foundation.
 
Blue Wode said:
There's a good article debunking craniosacral therapy (aka cranial osteopathy) which was written by a British midwife called Brid Hehir. It was published by the journal of the Royal College of Midwives and also by Spiked Health. You can find it by doing a Google search for Brid Hehir + craniosacral therapy.
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Which gets you to this most excellent site

That rocks. I've added their cranial osteopathy section to the links in the SkepticWiki article, and I think I'd better add the whole site to our resources list. Very nice.

* does happy dance *
 
* does happier dance *

That site's section on herbal medicine links to the SkepticWiki article on [swiki]Herbal medicine[/swiki] (as written by me, but enough about my ego.)

There we sit alongside the British Medical Council, the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, and the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

* does more dancing *
 
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Stitch said:
Indeed - I've tried to stay away from saying too much about that as it scares the heck out me just thinking about it. However, I haven't been able to find any studies or reports that such manipulation has caused damage. The osteopaths claim the load applied is equivalent to 5g which I doubt would be enough to manipulate the bones in a un-ossified skull anyway??
Click to expand...

I detest children. They are noisy, obnoxious and I don't want one of the critters inside the walls of my home on a 24/7/365.25 basis, which is hell on dating potential when you reach my agegroup, but even I can see the potential dangers of messing with a babys skull. Braindamage is not a pretty sight and I simply don't hate the spawn of man THAT much.

Just because that kind of damage haven't happened yet, officially, doesn't mean it wont happen. What if one of these quacks hit the "soft" spot? what if one of them use too much force? And what if there HAVE been damage, but it have been attributed to "other causes"?!

*Goes off muttering about getting her webpage up and posting a looong, scathering article on this new low of human stupidity*.
 
While the people who support CO seem unable to accept any other possibility for the "cure" if their child's condition, they would no doubt be equally unable to admit it was the CO practioner's fault and would blame the orginal delivery or anything else for any brain damage.
 
Craniosacral Therapy was recommended to us as a possible "cure" for colic for our newborn baby by our Health Visitor (as well as chiropractic) - we discussed it in this thread: http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50595

A few people we know have used it but the ones I've questioned have admitted that they saw no evidence that it actually helped. In common with many other posters I personally wouldn't want to risk it with my own baby, but when health visiitors endorse, it many people can and do assume it is legitimate - and safe...
 
For another interesting perspective on cranial manipulation, if you Google "accepting cranial" you'll find a long thread at student doctor dot com in which several Doctors of Osteopathy debate the validity of the treatment. Many of them voice skeptical opinions.
 
Here's the abstract of a gruesome attempt to investigate its feasibility. Obviously the other negative studies trump this one's sort-of positive but limited result

CHANGES IN ELONGATION OF FALX CEREBRI DURING CRANIOSACRAL THERAPY TECHNIQUES APPLIED ON THE SKULL OF AN EMBALMED CADAVER

KOSTOPOULOS DC, KERAMIDAS G

CRANIO-THE JOURNAL OF CRANIOMANDIBULAR PRACTICE 10 (1): 9-12 JAN 1992

Abstract: Craniosacral therapy supports that light forces applied to the skull may be transmitted to the dura membrane having a therapeutic effect to the cranial system. This study examines the changes in elongation of falx cerebri during the application of some of the craniosacral therapy techniques to the skull of an embalmed cadaver. The study demonstrates that the relative elongation of the falx cerebri changes as follows: for the frontal lift, 1.44 mm; for the parietal lift, 1.08 mm; for the sphenobasilar compression, -0.33 mm; for the sphenobasilar decompression, 0.28 mm; and for the ear pull, inconclusive results. The present study offers validation for the scientific basis of craniosacral therapy and the contention for cranial suture mobility.
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While we're on the subject, a primary school teacher I know told me that one of the parents of her class told her that her five-year-old boy had been getting very stressed about moving house soon, so he'd had to go for extra sessions with the cranial osteopath. According to his teacher the boy was fine, it was his mother who was stressed and projecting it all on to him. Sad
 
If what was done to me as cranial osteopathy is hazardous, better never wash your hair again! Or your baby's hair! If it's that powerful, a visit to the hairdresser is fraught with peril!

Rolfe.
 
As Rolfe and I have described it: homeopathic head massage.

I have also called it pure loony tunes. Which is further emphasized when you read up on one of the proponents, John Upledger:
http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/cranial.html which quoted him...
By connecting deeply with a patient while doing CranioSacral Therapy, it was possible in most cases to solicit contact with the patient's Inner Physician. It also became clear that the Inner Physician could take any for m the patient could imagine -- an image, a voice or a feeling. Usually once the image of the Inner Physician appeared, it was ready to dialog with me and answer questions about the underlying causes of the patient's health problems and what can be done to resolve them. It also became clear that when the conversation with the Inner Physician was authentic, the craniosacral system went into a holding pattern [6].
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Also, I usually use the BC Health's analysis... their health system actually checks out therapies before agreeing to pay for them:
http://www.chspr.ubc.ca/bcohta/pdf/bco99-01J_cranio.pdf

I used that report when I was involved in a listserv for my son's disability. One member kept arguing with me that I had a closed mind. I was about to just tell her that at least I didn't let my brain fall out, but I just told I was presenting the paper for her and others to read, and if she did NOT like to results then she should bring it up with the writers of the report.
 
Yes, John Upledger’s critical thinking faculties certainly seem to be more than a little shaky. The following quotes are taken from a couple of his articles which can be found in the archives of Massage Today. They’ve probably done the rounds here before, but for those of you who may be unfamiliar with them, here they are again:

‘CranioSacrally Speaking: A Natural Approach to Degenerative Diseases of the Central Nervous System’ (Massage Today, July 2005, Vol. 05, Issue 07)

“…Personally, I incorporate CST with SomatoEmotional Release and dialogue techniques to "talk" with the stem cells that are already numerous in the brain and spinal cord. First, I humbly and respectfully describe the functional losses of the central nervous system to the stem cells. Next, I politely request that these stem cells replace lost neurons, circuits or what have you, as they see fit. It's important to understand that I do not tell them how to do it. I only describe the problem and ask that the stem cells apply their wisdom and ingenuity to do whatever they feel is appropriate and necessary to restore normal function to the brain and spinal cord.”

‘My Dolphin Mentor’ (Massage Today, November 2002, Vol. 02, Issue 11)

“….. I was working with a young boy who had suffered from cerebral palsy since birth. I encountered a very strong resistance to physiological motion in his head. This resistance was in the horizontal component of the intracranial membrane system (the dura mater of the tentorium cerebelli). Since I was working in a train-of-thought mode, I said aloud, “I’m going to use some dolphin energy here.” The therapeutic energy input increased significantly at this time. Ironically, during the lunch break, the audio-recording technician told me that as I applied the “dolphin energy,” the static in his recording also increased significantly. He later reported that same effect each time I applied that energy over the course of the day.”

Would you want this man working with your head?
 
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