'I need to do another course' - Italian physiotherapists' knowledge and beliefs when assessing psychosocial factors in patients presenting with chronic low back pain.

Objectives: Psychosocial factors play an important role in the development and subsequent recovery of individuals suffering from chronic low back pain (CLBP). The study explored physiotherapists' personal beliefs and knowledge about the biopsychosocial model and the different ways they assess and manage psychosocial factors in patients presenting with CLBP.

Methods: Qualitative research design using semi-structured interviews and a constructivist grounded theory approach to data collection and analysis.

Professional ballet dancers' experience of injury and osteopathic treatment in the UK: A qualitative study.

Objectives: Professional dancers suffer significant musculoskeletal injuries during the course of their careers. Treatment-seeking behaviour is important in all patient populations, yet is rarely investigated amongst professional dancers. This qualitative study aimed to form a better understanding of how dancers decide to seek treatment, and in particular to explore their experiences of receiving osteopathic care for their injuries.

Time, space and form: Necessary for causation in health, disease and intervention?

Sir Austin Bradford Hill's 'aspects of causation' represent some of the most influential thoughts on the subject of proximate causation in health and disease. Hill compiled a list of features that, when present and known, indicate an increasing likelihood that exposure to a factor causes-or contributes to the causation of-a disease. The items of Hill's list were not labelled 'criteria', as this would have inferred every item being necessary for causation.

Clinical decision-making and therapeutic approaches in osteopathy - a qualitative grounded theory study.

There is limited understanding of how osteopaths make decisions in relation to clinical practice. The aim of this research was to construct an explanatory theory of the clinical decision-making and therapeutic approaches of experienced osteopaths in the UK. Twelve UK registered osteopaths participated in this constructivist grounded theory qualitative study.

A qualitative grounded theory study of the conceptions of clinical practice in osteopathy - a continuum from technical rationality to professional artistry.

How practitioners conceive clinical practice influences many aspects of their clinical work including how they view knowledge, clinical decision-making, and their actions. Osteopaths have relied upon the philosophical and theoretical foundations upon which the profession was built to guide clinical practice. However, it is currently unknown how osteopaths conceive clinical practice, and how these conceptions develop and influence their clinical work.

Values in complementary and alternative medicine.

In recent years so-called Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) practices have made significant political and professional advances particularly in the United Kingdom (UK): osteopathy and chiropractic were granted statutory self-regulation in the 1990s effectively giving them more professional autonomy and independence than health care professions supplementary to medicine; the practice of acupuncture is widespread within the National Health Service (NHS) for pain control; and homoeopathy is offered to patients by a few General Practitioners alongside conventional treatments. These developments have had a number of consequences: one is that both CAM and Conventional and Orthodox Medical (COM) professions have had to reappraise their professional identity. In manual therapy for example, questions have been asked about the differences between physiotherapy, osteopathy and chiropractic, and what the justification is for having separate professions.

Diastasis recti abdominis in HIV-infected men with lipodystrophy.

Diastasis recti abdominis is a condition in which the rectus abdominus muscle separates in the midline at the linea alba producing a ventral herniation. We have observed the occurrence of this condition in HIV-infected men attending an osteopathic clinic. Two such cases are described in detail.

Am I a carer and do I care? An exploration of the concept of care as applied to osteopathic practice.

A number of dichotomies bedevil the concept of care, among them, the question of whether healthcare is posited on care or cure. On one side the question is whether it is enough to cure without caring (to cure is to care) and on the other whether caring is sufficient without a cure. This has received attention in recent years from feminists, particularly in the nursing profession, and from renewed interest in virtue ethics.

The management of low back pain in pregnancy.

SUMMARY. Low back pain is a common condition seen in pregnancy. The treatment of low back pain in pregnant patients is essentially different from the treatment of the non-pregnant patient.