What is Osteopathic Medicine?
Mental Health Treatment, Boise, ID

One of the fastest growing healthcare professions in the country

Osteopathic medicine is a distinct branch of medicine in the United States. Osteopathic medicine emphasizes the interrelated unity of all systems in the body, each working with the other to heal in times of illness. Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine or D.O.s are fully licensed physicians who practice their unique whole-person approach in every medical specialty. D.O.s look beyond your symptoms to understand how lifestyle and environmental factors impact your wellbeing. D.O.s practice medicine according to the latest science and technology, but also consider options to complement pharmaceuticals and surgery. They complete additional training in osteopathic manipulative treatment, a hands on tool used to help diagnose, treat, and prevent injury and illness. Osteopathic medicine is one of the fastest growing healthcare professions in the country with one out of every four medical students enrolled in an osteopathic medical school. In fact, Idaho now has an osteopathic medical school located in Meridian. The school enrolled its first class in the year 2018. Over the past decade, the profession has experienced a 70% increase in the total number of D.O.s. If this trend continues, D.O.s are projected to represent more than 20% of all practicing physicians by the year 2030. The profession has a long history of providing care where patients lack doctors. Following this trend, more than 50% of active D.O.s practice in the primary care specialties of family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, and psychiatry.

Striving to help you to be truly healthy in mind, body, and spirit

As stated above, osteopathic physicians receive special training in the musculoskeletal system, your body’s interconnected system of nerves, muscles, and bones. By combining this knowledge with the latest advances in medical technology, they offer patients the most comprehensive care available in medicine today. Osteopathic physicians focus on prevention, tuning into how a patient’s lifestyle and environment can impact his/her wellbeing. D.O.s strive to help you to be truly healthy in mind, body, and spirit-not just free of symptoms. D.O.s look beyond the symptoms of illness and disease to examine the whole patient. D.O.s partner with patients to help prevent illness and injury. Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine believe there is more to good health than the absence of pain or disease. As guardians of wellness, D.O.s focus on prevention by gaining a deeper understanding of your lifestyle and environment, rather than just treating your symptoms. It makes a difference when your physician is trained to truly listen. To pay more attention to you than your chart. To look beyond the symptoms and take the time to get to know you as a whole person. Listening to a patient and partnering in his or her healthcare are the heart of the D.O.’s holistic empathetic approach to medicine. D.O.s are trained to promote the body’s natural tendency toward health and self-healing.

Dr. Pines has specifically incorporated his osteopathic training into a holistic approach to mental health treatment. His primary goal is not just to look at symptoms and label patients with specific diagnoses. Dr. Pines looks at the person as a whole, evaluates his/her life story, and develops an integrated treatment plan focusing not just on medications and pills, but on other behavioral techniques and lifestyle improvements.