Clinician-led mental health conversations significantly associated with outcomes for scoliosis patients.
Emily J Zeck, Megan E Glahn Castille
PMID 37746784WHAT IT FOUND
Scoliosis patients wanted mental health conversations more often than they reported having them.
Patients who wanted these conversations had lower function, mental health, and brace-comfort scores. Patients who discussed mental health with physical therapists reported higher self-image and overall scoliosis outcome scores.
Key findings
01Of 55 subjects, 34.5% (19) discussed mental health with at least one provider, and 49.1% (27) wanted these conversations.
02A desire to discuss mental health was associated with lower function, mental health, SRS-22r total, and BSSQ-Brace scores.
03Discussing mental health with a physical therapist was associated with higher self-image and SRS-22r total scores.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The sample was small, so the associations may not be stable. Most participants were female, and many came through a scoliosis mentor programme, which may bias responses. Mental-health conversations and counseling were self-reported, so the reported frequency may be inaccurate. The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot show whether conversations caused better or worse outcomes. The survey did not ask what kind of physical therapy was delivered. The survey asked about referring providers, physical therapists, and orthotists, but not occupational therapists or speech-language pathologists.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these results as proof that clinician-led mental health conversations improve scoliosis outcomes. The study is a small cross-sectional survey of self-reported conversations and scores, so it cannot show that talking caused the higher scores.