OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY

Research for occupational therapy

Papers an occupational therapist can act on, across daily living, mental health, hand therapy, paediatrics and rehabilitation, each read in full rather than from its abstract.

10,853 PAPERS · PAGE 208 OF 218 · NEWEST FIRST

• OTSystematic Review2026Preschool Hand Function Assessment Instruments: A Scoping Review With Targeted Analysis of Performance-Based Instruments.Occupational therapy international62 hand function assessments exist for preschool children, but none covers every hand function domain in a form that is culturally adaptable for low- and middle-income countries. Most come from high-income countries and only one covers most domains.
• OTSystematic Review2026The personal and professional characteristics of students who were successful in occupational therapy practice education: A scoping review.Australian occupational therapy journalStudents who passed placement were described as more resilient, more emotionally aware and stronger communicators than their peers, and higher coursework grades were also linked to success. Almost all of it comes from single studies showing links, not cause.
• OTSystematic Review2026Real-time experience: A systematic review of ecological momentary assessments of everyday functioning in major depressive disorder.Australian occupational therapy journalReal-time monitoring in depression is feasible, with 49-95% of prompts answered, and has covered seven areas of daily function. People reported feeling worse when alone, and poor sleep went with more severe depression. The two trials of app-delivered therapy found no difference between groups.
• OTQualitative2026Experiences and Preparedness of Nursing Students and Recent Nurse Graduates Delivering Cardiovascular Health Promotion for People Living With Intellectual Disabilities.Journal of applied research in intellectual disabilities : JARIDMost said they felt low on confidence and readiness before the programme and better after. The ones who adapted well to each athlete slowed down, used visual aids and asked athletes to explain things back, and redirected caregivers who answered for the athlete.
• OTOther2026Labour of Love: A Sequential Exploratory Mixed-Methods Study on the Impact of Caring for a Child With Dravet Syndrome.Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR69% of parents caring for a child with Dravet syndrome scored in the clinical range for distress, and more behavioural difficulties in the child went with more distress. Parents felt more able to influence their child's healthcare than to manage their family life.
• OTSystematic Review2026Occupational Therapy Neurorehabilitation Practice in Middle East and North Africa (MENA): A Scoping Review.Occupational therapy internationalOccupational therapists across this region work inside multidisciplinary teams, and almost all the research is about stroke. Two gaps stand out: almost no study assesses how cognitive problems affect real daily tasks, and home safety assessment is absent.
• OTSLPSystematic Review2026Exploring Vocational Training Interventions for Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Scoping Review.Occupational therapy internationalVocational help for autistic adults in these 26 studies falls into three groups: supported employment built on real internships, targeted skills training such as mock interviews, and support depending on employers and ongoing coaching. Measures vary too much to compare and most studies are small.
• OTQualitative2026Parents of youth and young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities: Barriers experienced during transition.Journal of pediatric rehabilitation medicineParents had to track down adult services themselves. There were no lists of day programs, long waitlists, too few staff, and placements that did not suit their child. School transition support was minimal and nothing was arranged in advance.
• OTQualitative2026Identifying the experiences, challenges and opportunities along pathways for community-based digital skill development for young people with disabilities in Canada: a community-based research study.Frontiers in rehabilitation sciencesYoung people with disabilities build digital skills mostly by teaching themselves and leaning on friends, family and community groups, because school and formal systems leave the gaps. Affordable courses stop at the basics, and accessibility is usually an afterthought.
• OTSLPSystematic Review2026Experiences of Social Care Among People With Intellectual Disabilities From Minority Ethnic Communities in the UK: A Rapid Review.Journal of applied research in intellectual disabilities : JARIDAdults with intellectual disabilities from minority ethnic communities face the same service barriers as everyone else, compounded by racism, language barriers and services that ignore religious and cultural needs. Families often get less extended family support than staff assume. Only 19 small studies exist.
• OTSystematic Review2026Occupational Formulation: A Scoping Review of Its Development and Use.Occupational therapy internationalOccupational formulation has no agreed definition. Across 102 sources, mostly book chapters rather than research, it means anything from a step in the Model of Human Occupation reasoning process to a psychological formulation with occupational ideas added. Almost no evidence links it to outcomes.
• OTSystematic Review2026Occupational resilience: Scoping review of conceptualisations and applications in contexts of adversity.Australian occupational therapy journalOccupational resilience is mostly studied as workers' capacity to withstand job stress, not as people using meaningful everyday activity to rebuild life after trauma. The authors argue for the broader second reading.
• PTOTQualitative2026Attendance Compulsory, Motivation Conditional. Autistic Youth's Psychological Need Support and Satisfaction Related to Physical Education: A Qualitative Investigation.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceAutistic students said PE worked when teachers explained tasks clearly and classmates were kind, and stopped working when it was noisy, rules were unclear, or peers teased them. Many sat out as a way of coping, not because they disliked PE.
• OTQualitative2026Exploring Competencies That Prepare Occupational Therapy Students for Acute Mental Health Practice: A Document Analysis.Occupational therapy internationalMapped against four international frameworks, one South African occupational therapy programme's written exit outcomes cover cultural competence and teamwork well but omit the acute-specific parts: condition knowledge, risk assessment, trauma-informed care, de-escalation and discharge planning.
• PTOTSystematic Review2025Effectiveness of psychoeducational intervention in promoting post-stroke self-care: a systematic literature review.Frontiers in rehabilitation sciencesHalf of the eight trials found no improvement in their main outcome after psychoeducation was added to stroke rehabilitation; the other half reported better self-care, self-efficacy, quality of life or caregiver burden. No trial tested education alone, and results could not be pooled.
• PTOTMeta-Analysis2025Effect of virtual reality-based upper limb training on activity of daily living and quality of life among stroke survivors: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationAdding game-based virtual reality to stroke upper limb rehabilitation, or using it on its own, improved daily activity scores more than conventional therapy alone, and immersive headsets did better than screens. Quality-of-life results look bigger but rest on only eight trials.
• PTOTRCT2025Effects of Inpatient Occupational Rehabilitation vs. Outpatient Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Sick Leave and Cost of Lost Production: 7-Year Follow-Up of a Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of occupational rehabilitationSeven years on, people who got the 3.5-week inpatient rehabilitation had fewer sick-leave days than those who got weekly outpatient ACT, but the difference was small enough that it could be chance. Costs of lost production were similar.
• PTOTSystematic Review2025Upper limb motor recovery in chronic stroke-longitudinal aggregate analysis from control group outcomes.Frontiers in rehabilitation sciencesIn chronic stroke, control groups given general exercise rather than targeted arm therapy gained 0.9 points on the 66-point Fugl-Meyer arm scale, well short of the 4.25 to 7.25 points that marks a real change.
• PTOTMeta-Analysis2025Safety and effectiveness of non-invasive brain stimulation on mobility and balance function in children with cerebral palsy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationNon-invasive brain stimulation plus other training improved walking distance, gait speed and gross motor scores in children with cerebral palsy; balance and Timed Up and Go did not improve. Stimulation was mostly combined with training, so its own contribution is unclear.
• PTOTMeta-Analysis2025Limited Evidence of Functional Benefit After Upper Limb Botulinum Toxin Treatment in Children With Cerebral Palsy: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.American journal of physical medicine & rehabilitationBotulinum toxin into the upper limb lowers muscle tone and spasticity in children with cerebral palsy, and parents report improvement, but the arm does not clearly work better. Grip strength drops while the toxin is active.
• PTOTSystematic Review2025A Systematic Review of the Effects of Therapeutic Exercise With Psychological Interventions on Disability and Personal Outcomes in Older Adults.Archives of rehabilitation research and clinical translationAdding motivational interviewing or CBT to exercise more often improved older adults' participation and confidence than their strength or walking, but many trials found no difference and the trials were too varied to draw firm conclusions.
• PTOTMeta-Analysis2025Several components of postural control are affected by benign paroxysmal positional vertigo but improve after particle-repositioning maneuvers: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Clinical rehabilitationRepositioning maneuvers improve the tilted sense of verticality and the extra sway that BPPV causes when vision or several senses are challenged, but not one-leg stance or older adults' limits of stability.
• PTOTRCT2025A Randomized Control Trial of a Virtually Delivered Program for Increasing Upper Limb Activity After Stroke.Neurorehabilitation and neural repairA three-week virtual upper limb programme (twice-daily home exercises, a wrist-worn movement counter with feedback, and six therapist video sessions) produced 368 more reach-and-grasp movements a day than usual care at four weeks. The difference only just reached significance (P = .046).
• PTOTMeta-Analysis2023Prevalence and risks factors of caregiving-related low back pain among caregivers of stroke survivors: a systematic review and meta-analysis.European journal of physical and rehabilitation medicineAbout half of people caring for a stroke survivor get low back pain from caregiving (53.9% pooled across the 5 included studies). In the pooled analysis, men and women did not differ significantly, and neither did partial and complete caregivers.
• PTOTSystematic Review2023Rehabilitation and COVID-19: systematic review by Cochrane Rehabilitation.European journal of physical and rehabilitation medicineBreathing exercises, strengthening and telerehabilitation showed some benefit for breathlessness and exercise capacity after COVID across 53 randomised trials, but the evidence is too weak to guide practice. In long COVID, telerehabilitation's improvement in exercise capacity was judged not clinically relevant.
• PTOTSystematic Review2023Efficacy of Prolotherapy for Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review.Journal of rehabilitation medicineDextrose injections eased pain and improved function in knee, hand and hip osteoarthritis more than saline, exercise, steroid or radiofrequency in most of 14 randomised trials. Platelet-rich plasma and other injections beat dextrose in others, and the review rated the overall risk of bias high.
• PTOTRCT2022Efficacy and feasibility of SENSory relearning of the UPPer limb (SENSUPP) in people with chronic stroke: A pilot randomized controlled trial.PM & R : the journal of injury, function, and rehabilitationAdding sensory relearning to task-specific training improved touch thresholds more than task training alone in 27 people with chronic stroke, but no other measure differed between the groups. Both groups improved in daily hand use, and the trial was too small to confirm benefit.
• PTOTSLPSystematic Review2022Systematic Review of Functional Outcomes in Cancer Rehabilitation.Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitationMost studies in this review found rehabilitation improved function for people with cancer, across daily activities, fatigue, walking, thinking and quality of life. But 102 of 362 (28%) found no significant benefit on their main outcome, and results could not be pooled.
• PTOTRCT2024Stepped collaborative care for pain and posttraumatic stress disorder after major trauma: a randomized controlled feasibility trial.Disability and rehabilitationCase management after major trauma was practical and well received: all 17 people offered it took part, most were engaged, and none were harmed. But PTSD symptoms fell equally in both groups, and the intervention group reported more pain at 3 and 6 months.
• OTRCT2023Acceptance and commitment therapy for individuals with depressive and anxiety symptoms following acquired brain injury: A non-concurrent multiple baseline design across four cases.Neuropsychological rehabilitationThree of four adults with depression or anxiety after stroke or TBI improved on daily mood ratings during eight sessions of ACT, and their gains held a year later. The fourth did not improve, and his questionnaire scores later rose above his starting point.
• OTRCT2023A short add-on sleep intervention in the rehabilitation of individuals with acquired brain injury: A randomized controlled trial.NeuroRehabilitationAdding a short sleep programme to usual rehabilitation improved sleep quality far more than usual rehabilitation alone: mean scores, where higher is worse, fell from 10.65 to 6.09 against 11.11 to 10.44. Fatigue, anxiety and depression did not differ between groups.
• OTSystematic Review2022Remote Assessments of Hand Function in Neurological Disorders: Systematic Review.JMIR rehabilitation and assistive technologiesRemote tools show promise for measuring hand function, but none is yet valid and reliable across Parkinson's disease, stroke and MS. Finger tapping and hand tremor matched in-clinic scores best. Most reported links to clinic measures were not significant, and few studies checked reliability.
• PTOTSystematic Review2022Feasibility, Acceptability, and Efficacy of Mindfulness Training in People With Upper Motor Neuron Disorders: A Systematic Review.Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitationIn MS, brain injury, spinal cord injury and ALS, 85% of people who started a mindfulness programme finished it, and satisfaction averaged 4.6 out of 5. Depression, anxiety and fatigue fell, but far less when the comparison group got another active treatment.
• OTSystematic Review2021Effects of Nonpharmacological Interventions on Disruptive Vocalisation in Nursing Home Patients With Dementia-A Systematic Review.Frontiers in rehabilitation sciencesAcross 23 randomised trials in nursing homes, 14 reduced vocally disruptive behaviour with nonpharmacological approaches, 7 found no change and 2 made it worse. Individualised, tailored multicomponent plans had the most support; massage, aromatherapy and therapeutic touch did not.
• OTRCT2024AppReminders - a pilot feasibility randomized controlled trial of a memory aid app for people with acquired brain injury.Neuropsychological rehabilitationRecruitment, retention and app use all fell short of the trial's own targets, and overall memory scores did not change. On the daily memory log alone, scores in the ApplTree group rose 13% while the Google Calendar group's did not change.
• PTOTMeta-Analysis2023A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of the Effect of Active Video Games on Postural Balance.Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitationActive video games improved balance more than no treatment, and also more than conventional therapy, across 129 studies and 6407 participants. The average effect was modest, the included studies were mostly small and unblinded, and the authors found signs of publication bias.
• OTSystematic Review2023Use of Assistive Technology for Persons with Psychosocial Disability: Systematic Review.JMIR rehabilitation and assistive technologiesEvidence for user-controlled devices in psychosocial disability rests on five studies, one a single case. PDAs, phone alarms, pill-cap monitors and weighted blankets were each reported to help with social function, daily tasks, medication adherence and sleep.
• PTOTSystematic Review2023Recommendations from the ISPO lower-limb COMPASS: Patient-reported and performance-based outcome measures.Prosthetics and orthotics internationalAn international panel of 46 clinicians, researchers and prosthesis users agreed on six measures for people with lower-limb absence, taken before and after each rehabilitation episode: three physical performance tests and three questionnaires, about 45 minutes in total.
• PTOTRCT2023Effects of hypnosis, mindfulness meditation, and education for chronic pain on substance use in veterans: A supplementary analysis of a randomized clinical trial.Rehabilitation psychologyMindfulness meditation and hypnosis for chronic pain did not change tobacco or alcohol use in veterans. Both were linked to a lower risk of daily cannabis use than the education group. The comparison was not planned in advance and the cannabis numbers are small.
• OTRCT2022Spatial exploration strategy training for spatial neglect: A pilot study.Neuropsychological rehabilitationA single 20-to-30-minute session of guided practice helped people with left-sided neglect after right-brain stroke search more evenly on both sides, and judge their own performance better. It did not increase the total number of objects they found.
• PTOTSystematic Review2024A systematic review on visual scanning behaviour in hemianopia considering task specificity, performance improvement, spontaneous and training-induced adaptations.Disability and rehabilitationFor people with hemianopia, what helps depends on the task: fewer fixations and repeats go with better search and reading performance, and in reading, longer eye movements into the blind side help too. Not everyone adopts these on their own, but training can produce them.
• OTRCT2023A Randomized Clinical Trial Targeting Daily Living Skills in Autistic Adolescents Without an Intellectual Disability Before the Transition to Adulthood.Journal of developmental and behavioral pediatrics : JDBPAutistic teens in their last two years of high school gained more daily living skills from a 14-session programme than from a social skills group, on the overall score and on domestic skills. Personal care and community skills improved equally in both groups.
• OTMeta-Analysis2026Self-Compassion and Psychological Health of Parents: A Meta-Analysis Focused on Some Neurodevelopmental Disorders.Journal of autism and developmental disordersAcross 15 studies, parents of children with autism or intellectual disability who were kinder to themselves reported less anxiety, less depression, less parenting stress and better well-being. All 15 studies measured parents once, so this shows a link, not cause and effect.
• OTRCT2025Secondary effects of dialectical behaviour therapy on social functioning, quality of life, and autism traits in autistic adults with suicidality.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceDialectical behaviour therapy added to usual care modestly improved social functioning and quality of life in autistic adults with suicidal thoughts and behaviour, at six months and a year. Autism traits did not change, and the authors call the functional gains small.
• PTOTRCT2025Functioning and activity outcomes of the Akwenda Intervention Program for children and young adults with cerebral palsy in Uganda: A cluster-randomized trial.Developmental medicine and child neurologyTraining and supporting caregivers improved self-care, social function and, to a smaller degree, gross motor skills in children and young adults with cerebral palsy in rural Uganda. Children who waited a year for the program also improved, which the authors could not fully explain.
• OTRCT2025Understanding Repetitive Behaviours: A clinical and cost-effectiveness, multi-site randomised controlled trial of a group for parents and carers of young autistic children.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceChildren's overall functioning improved no more after a parent programme on repetitive behaviours than after general autism psychoeducation. Children in the repetitive-behaviour arm were more likely to improve on the behaviour parents had targeted, but it cost more.
• OTRCT2024Orthosis vs. exercise for the treatment of adult idiopathic trigger fingers: A randomized clinical trial.Prosthetics and orthotics internationalA PIP-blocking orthosis worn day and night for six weeks plus hand therapy completely resolved trigger finger in 16 participants (53.6%); hand therapy alone resolved none. Pain and hand function improved only with the orthosis, though about a quarter of those relapsed by three months.
• OTRCT2023Depressive Symptoms in Autistic Youth with Anxiety Disorders.Journal of developmental and behavioral pediatrics : JDBP42.7% of autistic 7-13 year-olds with anxiety reported clinically elevated depressive symptoms, while only 20.2% of parents reported the same. Depression did not predict how well anxiety-focused CBT worked in this secondary analysis of a trial.
• OTSLPSystematic Review2023Telehealth Interventions to Promote Health and Behavior-Related Outcomes in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder.Journal of autism and developmental disordersJob-interview skills improved in all three studies that targeted them, but across 11 studies results for anxiety, depression, social skills and quality of life were inconsistent. Samples were small and most studies were at high risk of bias.
• OTRCT2022Remind Me To Remember: A pilot study of a novel smartphone reminder application for older adults with dementia and mild cognitive impairment.Neuropsychological rehabilitationTen older adults with memory problems completed more of the four timed water-fetching tasks with a smartphone reminder app than without it (median 100 vs 62.5 percent), and checked the clock far less. Small lab pilot, not home use.