Osteopathic medicine is a branch of medicine that looks beyond pain and symptoms to the underlying disease. Instead of merely looking at how to treat the symptoms or the disease with medicine, osteopathic medicine additionally examines the effect of the individual's musculoskeletal system, lifestyle, environment, mental health, and other areas of influence in order to treat the whole person instead of just a single part. While general medicine provides healthcare to individuals with a focus on treating conditions with medication, osteopathic medicine focuses on prevention and whole-body care with a special emphasis on diseases relating to the musculoskeletal system.
Osteopathic doctors are licensed doctors and receive the same education as general practitioners, but in addition to the standard medical education, they receive hundreds of hours in specialized instruction on the musculoskeletal system: joints, ligaments, muscles, bones, and the treatment of this system. Osteopathic doctors might also specialize in different areas, such as family medicine, pediatrics, surgery, and even
psychiatry.