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Case History

Taking a good case history is important in finding the cause of your injury and any maintaining factors, to find out about your general health and also to get to know you - all of which are important factors in Osteopathic treatment. Osteopaths have years of professional and clinical training and are well versed in signs and symptoms of pathology. If your Osteopath is concerned that there may be some underlying systemic cause to your symptoms, then you may be referred to your G.P. or for further clinical tests to rule out anything more sinister.

Finding the Cause and Maintaining Factors
There are many people currently claiming to "treat the cause and not the symptoms", which is a noble principle, but can be difficult in practice for a number of reasons. Obviously, if the cause of a dysfunction is a traumatic event, as is common in most sports injuries, then the cause cannot be treated. In dysfunction where the onset is gradual, then the cause is difficult to find. It may be some previous trauma or combination of traumas, or even the way you sit at work in front of the computer. Eliciting these events and any other factors maintaining the current problem are an important part of case history taking.

General Health
Finding out about your general health is an important part of considering how to treat a person. An 80 year old lady will be treated differently for an ankle sprain than a 19 year old footballer. We may also be able to make recommendations about improving general health if this is also a goal.

Getting to Know You
People are more than just bodies - outlook and attitude are important factors in the healing process. There are also other factors such as occupation, stress and lifestyle that affect a person's wellbeing and recovery. A working mother may have little opportunity to perform an exercise plan, and factors like these must be taken into account when treating a person.