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McParlin Z, Cerritelli F, Manzotti A, Friston KJ, Esteves JE. Therapeutic touch and therapeutic alliance in pediatric care and neonatology: An active inference framework. Front Pediatr 2023; 11:961075. [PMID: 36923275 PMCID: PMC10009260 DOI: 10.3389/fped.2023.961075] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2022] [Accepted: 02/07/2023] [Indexed: 03/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Therapeutic affective touch has been recognized as essential for survival, nurturing supportive interpersonal interactions, accelerating recovery-including reducing hospitalisations, and promoting overall health and building robust therapeutic alliances. Through the lens of active inference, we present an integrative model, combining therapeutic touch and communication, to achieve biobehavioural synchrony. This model speaks to how the brain develops a generative model required for recovery, developing successful therapeutic alliances, and regulating allostasis within paediatric manual therapy. We apply active inference to explain the neurophysiological and behavioural mechanisms that underwrite the development and maintenance of synchronous relationships through touch. This paper foregrounds the crucial role of therapeutic touch in developing a solid therapeutic alliance, the clinical effectiveness of paediatric care, and triadic synchrony between health care practitioner, caregiver, and infant in a variety of clinical situations. We start by providing a brief overview of the significance and clinical role of touch in the development of social interactions in infants; facilitating a positive therapeutic alliance and restoring homeostasis through touch to allow a more efficient process of allostatic regulation. Moreover, we explain the role of CT tactile afferents in achieving positive clinical outcomes and updating prior beliefs. We then discuss how touch is implemented in treatment sessions to promote cooperative interactions in the clinic and facilitate theory of mind. This underwrites biobehavioural synchrony, epistemic trust, empathy, and the resolution of uncertainty. The ensuing framework is underpinned by a critical application of the active inference framework to the fields of pediatrics and neonatology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zoe McParlin
- Foundation COME Collaboration, Clinical-Based Human Research Department, Pescara, Italy
| | - Francesco Cerritelli
- Division of Neonatology, “V. Buzzi” Children's Hospital, ASST-FBF-Sacco, Milan, Italy
| | - Andrea Manzotti
- Foundation COME Collaboration, Clinical-Based Human Research Department, Pescara, Italy
- Division of Neonatology, “V. Buzzi” Children's Hospital, ASST-FBF-Sacco, Milan, Italy
- Research Department, SOMA, Istituto Osteopatia Milano, Milan, Italy
| | - Karl J Friston
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London, United Kingdom
| | - Jorge E Esteves
- Foundation COME Collaboration, Clinical-Based Human Research Department, Pescara, Italy
- Malta ICOM Educational, Malta, Finland
- Research Department, University College of Osteopathy, Research Department, London, United Kingdom
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Beliefs and Use of Palpatory Findings in Osteopathic Clinical Practice: A Qualitative Descriptive Study among Italian Osteopaths. Healthcare (Basel) 2022; 10:healthcare10091647. [PMID: 36141259 PMCID: PMC9498689 DOI: 10.3390/healthcare10091647] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2022] [Revised: 08/24/2022] [Accepted: 08/25/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
The Italian government has started the regulatory process of osteopathy to include it among the healthcare professions mentioning terms, such as “perceptual palpation” and “somatic dysfunction” within the professional profile. ‘Palpatory findings’ are one of the multidimensional aspects that can inform osteopathic clinical reasoning. The non-regulated educational system has led to heterogenic professionals working in Italy, thus, the aim of this study was to investigate how Italian experts use palpatory findings in their clinical practice. A total of 12 experts were selected to participate in four virtual focus groups. A qualitative inductive approach with a constructivist paradigm was chosen to describe the results. The themes that emerged were: osteopathic identity; evaluation; osteopathic diagnosis; and sharing with different recipients. Participants agreed on the peculiarity and distinctiveness of osteopathic palpation, but there was some disagreement on the clinical significance of the findings, highlighting a complex multidimensional approach to diagnosis and treatment. The results seem to reflect the history of the profession in Italy, which has evolved quickly, leading professionals to seek new paradigms blending tradition and scientific evidence. The authors suggest further investigation to verify the state of art among osteopaths not involved in research or a broader consensus of the results.
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Rossettini G, Colombi A, Carlino E, Manoni M, Mirandola M, Polli A, Camerone EM, Testa M. Unraveling Negative Expectations and Nocebo-Related Effects in Musculoskeletal Pain. Front Psychol 2022; 13:789377. [PMID: 35369173 PMCID: PMC8966654 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.789377] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2021] [Accepted: 02/24/2022] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
This Perspective adapts the ViolEx Model, a framework validated in several clinical conditions, to better understand the role of expectations in the recovery and/or maintenance of musculoskeletal (MSK) pain. Here, particular attention is given to the condition in which dysfunctional expectations are maintained despite no longer being supported by confirmatory evidence (i.e., belief-lifting the arm leads to permanent tendon damage; evidence-after the patient lifts the arm no tendon damage occurs). While the ViolEx Model suggests that cognitive immunization strategies are responsible for the maintenance of dysfunctional expectations, we suggest that such phenomenon can also be understood from a Bayesian Brain perspective, according to which the level of precision of the priors (i.e., expectations) is the determinant factor accounting for the extent of priors' updating (i.e., we merge the two frameworks, suggesting that highly precise prior can lead to cognitive immunization responses). Importantly, this Perspective translates the theory behind these two frameworks into clinical suggestions. Precisely, it is argued that different strategies should be implemented when treating MSK pain patients, depending on the nature of their expectations (i.e., positive or negative and the level of their precision).
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Affiliation(s)
- Giacomo Rossettini
- Department of Neuroscience, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics, Maternal and Child Health, University of Genova, Genova, Italy.,School of Physiotherapy, University of Verona, Verona, Italy
| | - Andrea Colombi
- Department of Neuroscience, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics, Maternal and Child Health, University of Genova, Genova, Italy
| | - Elisa Carlino
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Turin Medical School, Turin, Italy
| | - Mattia Manoni
- Department of Neuroscience, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics, Maternal and Child Health, University of Genova, Genova, Italy
| | | | - Andrea Polli
- Pain in Motion (PAIN) Department, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.,Department of Public Health and Primary Care, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.,Research Foundation, Flanders (FWO) Postdoctoral Fellow, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Eleonora Maria Camerone
- Department of Neuroscience, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics, Maternal and Child Health, University of Genova, Genova, Italy.,Department of Psychology, University of Milan-Bicocca, Milano, Italy
| | - Marco Testa
- Department of Neuroscience, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics, Maternal and Child Health, University of Genova, Genova, Italy
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Esteves JE, Cerritelli F, Kim J, Friston KJ. Osteopathic Care as (En)active Inference: A Theoretical Framework for Developing an Integrative Hypothesis in Osteopathy. Front Psychol 2022; 13:812926. [PMID: 35250743 PMCID: PMC8894811 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.812926] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2021] [Accepted: 01/11/2022] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Osteopathy is a person-centred healthcare discipline that emphasizes the body’s structure-function interrelationship—and its self-regulatory mechanisms—to inform a whole-person approach to health and wellbeing. This paper aims to provide a theoretical framework for developing an integrative hypothesis in osteopathy, which is based on the enactivist and active inference accounts. We propose that osteopathic care can be reconceptualised under (En)active inference as a unifying framework. Active inference suggests that action-perception cycles operate to minimize uncertainty and optimize an individual’s internal model of the lived world and, crucially, the consequences of their behaviour. We argue that (En)active inference offers an integrative framework for osteopathy, which can evince the mechanisms underlying dyadic and triadic (e.g., in paediatric care) exchanges and osteopathic care outcomes. We propose that this theoretical framework can underpin osteopathic care across the lifespan, from preterm infants to the elderly and those with persistent pain and other physical symptoms. In situations of chronicity, as an ecological niche, the patient-practitioner dyad provides the osteopath and the patient with a set of affordances, i.e., possibilities for action provided by the environment, that through shared intentionally, can promote adaptations and restoration of productive agency. Through a dyadic therapeutic relationship, as they engage with their ecological niche’s affordances—a structured set of affordances shared by agents—osteopath and patient actively construct a shared sense-making narrative and realise a shared generative model of their relation to the niche. In general, touch plays a critical role in developing a robust therapeutic alliance, mental state alignment, and biobehavioural synchrony between patient and practitioner. However, its role is particularly crucial in the fields of neonatology and paediatrics, where it becomes central in regulating allostasis and restoring homeostasis. We argue that from an active inference standpoint, the dyadic shared ecological niche underwrites a robust therapeutic alliance, which is crucial to the effectiveness of osteopathic care. Considerations and implications of this model—to clinical practice and research, both within- and outside osteopathy—are critically discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jorge E. Esteves
- Clinical-Based Human Research Department, Foundation COME Collaboration, Pescara, Italy
- Malta ICOM Educational, Gżira, Malta
- Research Department, University College of Osteopathy, London, United Kingdom
- *Correspondence: Jorge E. Esteves,
| | - Francesco Cerritelli
- Clinical-Based Human Research Department, Foundation COME Collaboration, Pescara, Italy
| | - Joohan Kim
- Department of Communication, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea
| | - Karl J. Friston
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, London, United Kingdom
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