Comparing the Effect of Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (OMM) Versus Counseling in the Treatment of Concussion

Concussion or mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a challenging injury for physicians to manage and is among the most serious disabling neurological disorders. Physician awareness regarding manifestations of TBI and subsequent treatment are paramount to reduce the burden of disease. Advancements in treatment of mild TBI have been slow with a lack of consensus on treatment methods that show universal success. This gap in treatment choices provides an opportunity for osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) to fill. OMT is a hands-on manual therapy that can be integrated to help treat post-concussive symptoms. Previous studies have shown that OMT can help resolve imbalance and tinnitus in elderly populations and case studies have shown that this manual therapy may assist in patient recovery. The investigators hypothesize that OMT will decrease return to play/work time, will show an improvement in balance, and will decrease concussion symptoms as compared to counseling.