Doctor Patient Relation
Conditions
Brief summary
This study will assess the physiological interaction between the palpating clinician and a research participant using a laser Doppler flow meter to detect changes in blood flow parameters.
Detailed description
Research participants will lie on their backs on a soft table while a licensed physician, with special training in osteopathic palpation and manipulation approaches, touches, and administers a slight inhibition of occipital bone motion for five minutes per stage. Both will have a non invasive skin sensor (probe), called a laser Doppler flow meter, attached to their forehead to detect changes in subcutaneous blood flow velocity. The signal from the device will be augmented and transmitted for display onto a digital polygraph recorder. Then, using Fourier transformation software, the signal will be displayed as a graph for spectral analysis to determine the effect on specific wave forms related to autonomic activity. The interaction between the two individuals will be assessed for evidence of entrainment phenomenon, i.e., the influence of one biorhythm upon another.
Interventions
Sponsors
Western University of Health Sciences
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
SEQUENTIAL
Primary purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
QUADRUPLE (Subject, Caregiver, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
Masking description
The clinicians, participants, researchers and statistician will not know which stage of interaction (distant, close, touching, pulling) induces entrainment, if at all. Statistician will be blinded to stage allocation of each data set, and stages of interaction will be randomized per encounter.
Intervention model description
Intrasubject sequential intervention design
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* healthy adult that can lie on his or her back on a padded table without moving for 35 minutes.
Exclusion criteria
* head trauma within the last six months, seizure disorder, pregnant, brain disease or injury, using beta or alpha blocker medication, unable to lie still for 35 minutes, allergy to the hypoallergenic sticky tape used to attach sensor to forehead
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Entrainment of still points between clinician and research participant | within 1 minute of each other (arbitrary designation) | When one person has a still point it may or may not affect the other person. If it does, then entrainment will have occurred. The clinician's intent is to create a still point in the participant by inhibiting occipital motion. This is measurable using the laser Doppler flow meter. The induction of the still point, which is manifest on the polygraph and in spectroscopy as a distinct diminished amplitude at the .08-1.5 Hz frequency, may entrain the clinician to have a still point as well. |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed