Osteopathic Research Web

Cranial State of Mind - Does cranial osteopathy influence the patient's state of consciousness?

Item

Title

Cranial State of Mind - Does cranial osteopathy influence the patient's state of consciousness?

Author(s)

Engel Raimund

Abstract

Objectives
Many patients - while or after a treatment with cranial osteopathy - report changes in awareness, perception or emotions. The project's aims were to find out, whether the described effect is measurable and whether there is a difference between an osteopathic technique and unspecific non-osteopathic touch. Then the phenomenon was related to the existing body of consciousness research .
Design
An experimental design with three groups was used. Group E was treated by an osteopath using a cranial technique, group C1 was treated by a non-osteopath, using a sham technique, group C2 was lying still with eyes closed. During the experiment subjects' heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV) were measured to observe possible physiological concomitants of a shift in consciousness. After the experiment subjects filled out the Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory (PCI) and the Dimensions of Attention Questionnaire (DAQ) to quantify their state of consciousness and attention.
Participants
46 healthy subjects were measured once by an osteopath or a non-osteopath.
Main Outcome Measures
The dimensions measured by the PCI are positive affect (joy, sexual excitement, love), negative affect (anger, sadness, fear), altered experience (altered body image, altered time sense, altered perception, altered meaning), visual imagery (amount, vividness), attention, (direction, absorption), self awareness, altered state of awareness, internal dialogue, rationality, volitional control, memory, arousal. The DAQ more specifically measures 12 dimensions of attention. The HRV-system's measurements for heart rate (HR), low frequency domain (LF) and high frequency domain (HF) were analysed, then the variable LF-to-HF-ratio was computed.
Results
An analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Duncan's multiple range test were used to detect significant differences between groups. Differences were found in the PCI's dimensions altered state of awareness (p

Abstract

presented at

Wiener Schule für Osteopathie

Date Accepted

2006

Date Submitted

1.1.2006 00:00:00

Type

osteo_thesis

Language

English

Number of pages

115

Submitted by:

62

Pub-Identifier

12376

Inst-Identifier

781

Keywords

Consciousness,Cranial Osteopathy

Recommended

1

Medium

Engel.pdf

Item sets

Thesis

Media

Engel.pdf

Engel Raimund, “Cranial State of Mind - Does cranial osteopathy influence the patient's state of consciousness?”, Osteopathic Research Web, accessed April 23, 2025, https://library.wso.at/s/orw/item/3045