Is There Any Scientific Evidence to Show That Orthopedic Physical Therapy Actually Works?

Question by Gabrielle Butcher: Is there any scientific evidence to show that Orthopedic physical therapy actually works?
I need to know about the scientific evidence, statistics and other evidence to show that Orthopedic physical therapy actually works. (its coursework) Thanks :)

Best answer:

Answer by Plogsties
I can’t personally help you but I can point you to some sources. “The American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation” is one such publication (I’m sure there are others, some of which could be found as references in any issue of this pulication).

JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Assoc) sometimes has research articles on physiatry; this journal tends to be more objective and less biased.

I’m sure you can find comments in many magazines that have to do with “fitness” but the veracity of such publications is , at best, questionable.

I would say that, in my 30 years as an internist, I recall VERY FEW scientifically done studies of questions regarding the efficacy of physical therapy – this is not to say that such therapy doesn’t help – probably because no one was willing to fund such a study.

Good luck.

Answer by Gracinda
By the way that you’ve posted 2 very general questions on this topic, I can tell that you have no idea what you are actually looking for.
Have you actually looked at the Americal Journal of Physical Therapy? Decades of “scholarly” scientific evidence.

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