THE INDEX

Every paper we have read

Each one summarised from the full article, not its abstract, and kept only if it speaks to physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech-language pathology or nursing. Newest first.

35,183 PAPERS · PAGE 676 OF 704 · 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.
• SLPSystematic Review2026Auditory Sensitivity in Autism: A Systematic Review of Mismatch Negativity and Mismatch Field Responses.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism ResearchAutistic children often showed smaller brain responses to unexpected sounds than non-autistic peers, especially for changes in tone frequency, but other studies found larger responses or none, and adult findings were mostly null. Timing differences were inconsistent and tracked language and sensory profile more than diagnosis.
• 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.
• Other2026Mental tasks induce common modulations of oscillations in cortex and spinal cord.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationMental tasks performed during a steady foot contraction changed brain rhythms and the firing of spinal motor neurons in the same direction, strongest around 30 Hz. Which task could be decoded from the motor neurons at 30%, barely above the 25% chance level.
• SLPSystematic Review2026Impact of Age-Related Hearing Loss on Brain Connectivity and Cognitive Performance: A Systematic Review.Trends in hearingOlder adults with age-related hearing loss show altered brain connectivity, most consistently reduced connectivity within the default mode network, and these changes track with worse executive function, especially set-shifting. All 25 studies were observational, so this shows association, not that hearing loss causes cognitive decline.
• SLPOther2026Cross-Modality Treatment Generalization in Sentence Comprehension in Aphasia: Evidence From Structural Priming and Webcam-Based Eye-Tracking.International journal of language & communication disordersSix sessions of sentence production training did not improve how accurately people with aphasia understood sentences, but they got about 300 ms faster at answering and looked at the right picture sooner. Verb overlap helped control participants, not those with aphasia.
• Other2026Using Non-Standard Research Methods to Explore the Perspectives of People With Intellectual Disabilities on Sensitive Topics: A Discussion of the Research Paradigm, Data Collection Methods and Data Analysis.Journal of applied research in intellectual disabilities : JARIDA methods paper, not a study report. It sets out how the team ran focus groups with people with intellectual disabilities about end-of-life planning, and why they used games instead of interview questions. The findings went into a separate paper.
• PTOther2026Inter-rater and Intra-rater Reliability of the Cutting Movement Assessment Score Among Physical Therapists.International journal of sports physical therapyThe same therapist scored the same 20 cutting videos almost identically when re-scored 130 days later (excellent). Scores from different therapists agreed only moderately, and least between the most experienced and the newest rater.
• PTNarrative Review2026Diagnostic Musculoskeletal Ultrasound in the Evaluation of the Proximal Hamstrings at the Ischial Tuberosity.International journal of sports physical therapyA how-to guide to scanning the proximal hamstring at the ischial tuberosity with ultrasound. It describes anatomy and normal scan appearances, reports no patients and no results, so there is nothing here to change practice on.
• 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.
• PTRCT2026Effects of Lower-Leg Fascial Flossing on Flexibility and Performance in Collegiate Distance Runners: Ultrasound Evaluation of Fascial Gliding.International journal of sports physical therapyAfter a 32-minute run, tight floss-band wrapping during heel raises let the calf's fascia and muscle slide more freely and gave more ankle range than the untreated leg. Jump power held steady in the flossed leg but fell in the other.
• SLPOther2026Optimal Parameters for Measuring Multiband Auditory Brainstem Responses to Continuous Speech.Trends in hearingReshaping the speech sounds cut the median time to record all ten brainstem responses from 21.3 minutes to 10.2, and lowering the narrator's voice pitch sped things up further, so most people finished testing in under 20 to 30 minutes.
• SLPMeta-Analysis2026Digital Interventions for First-Time Hearing Aid Users: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Efficacy and Effectiveness.Trends in hearingDigital programmes for new hearing aid users reliably improved knowledge and device handling skills, but did not increase how much people wore their hearing aids. Combining trial results for use, satisfaction and quality of life showed no difference from usual care.
• SLPSurvey2026Assessing Hearing-Related Quality of Life in Adults With Hearing Loss: Validation of the German Cochlear Implant Quality of Life (CIQOL)-35 Profile.Trends in hearingThe German CIQOL-35 measures hearing-related quality of life in adult cochlear implant users reliably and tracks the older NCIQ closely, while also covering listening effort and entertainment, which the NCIQ does not. Its items came from what implant users said mattered.
• 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.
• Other2026A structural causal model for robot-assisted upper-limb neurorehabilitation.Frontiers in rehabilitation sciencesThis is a proposed model, not a study. No patients were treated and nothing was measured, so there is no result about robotic therapy to act on. The authors present it as a set of hypotheses for others to test.
• 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.
• PTSystematic Review2026Perception, assessment, and coaching: a systematic review and taxonomy of computer vision-based physical rehabilitation techniques.Frontiers in rehabilitation sciencesAlmost all vision-based rehabilitation research stops at measuring movement. Of 147 reviewed publications, 16 dealt with coaching, 10 reached moderate-to-high quality, and none reached a high level of clinical validation evidence. Nothing here shows camera-based coaching improves patient outcomes.
• PTOther2026Assessing Balance in Young Athletes With and Without Chronic Ankle Instability.International journal of sports physical therapyAthletes with chronic ankle instability balanced on one leg for 14.55 seconds with eyes open versus 24.75 seconds for healthy athletes and 25.20 for copers, and reached less far on the Y-balance test. With eyes closed, the groups did not differ.
• Systematic Review2026Barriers and Facilitators to Participation in Psychosocial Research for Adults With Intellectual Disabilities: A Systematic Review.Journal of applied research in intellectual disabilities : JARIDAdults with intellectual disabilities say they want to take part in research and value payment, learning things and getting results. Families, carers, services and ethics committees often assume they cannot or will not, and barriers were found at every level, from consent to funding.
• 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.
• PTRCT2026Effects of positive inspiratory and expiratory pressure on diaphragmatic mobility in asymptomatic individuals: Randomised, crossover clinical trial.Hong Kong physiotherapy journal : official publication of the Hong Kong Physiotherapy Association Limited = Wu li chih liaoPositive airway pressure made the diaphragm move more than spontaneous breathing, but only at the higher settings: CPAP 15 cmH2O and bi-level IPAP 10, 12 or 15 with PEEP 5. In healthy young adults, so nothing yet for patients.
• PTCase Report2026Rehabilitation Following a Distal Semitendinosus Excision in a Collegiate American Football Player: A Resident's Case Report.International journal of sports physical therapyOne college football player returned to competition 12 weeks after surgery to excise an avulsed distal semitendinosus tendon, following a staged rehab from knee immobilizer to sprinting. Eccentric hamstring strength was still 34.8% below his pre-injury max at clearance.
• PTOther2026An Examination of the Relationship Between Fear of Reinjury and Neuromuscular, Musculoskeletal, and Biomechanical Characteristics at the Time of Return to Sport following Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction.International journal of sports physical therapyAthletes cleared for return to sport after ACL reconstruction who scored higher on fear of reinjury did not differ from less fearful athletes on strength, stability, hop symmetry or most movement measures. Only calf flexibility and one knee landing angle differed, in a small study.
• 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.
• SLPOther2026Effects of Source-Specific Dynamic Range Compression on Sound Quality for Individuals With Hearing Loss.Trends in hearingWhen speech and background were compressed separately and then mixed, 20 adults with hearing loss rated sound quality higher than when the mixed signal was compressed: clearer speech, more pleasant music, less noise. The advantage disappeared once speech was louder than the background.
• 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.
• SLPMeta-Analysis2026Reinterpreting the Frequency Dependence of Cortical Auditory-Evoked Response Amplitudes in Light of Current Understanding of Cortical Tonotopic Organization.Trends in hearingCortical auditory evoked responses get smaller as stimulus frequency rises, unlike brainstem responses. Forward modelling suggests the drop is driven mainly by the net current tilting away from the recording electrodes as activation moves along the tonotopic map.
• 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.
• PTRCT2025Complex Exercises Improve Cognition in People With Parkinson's Disease and Freezing of Gait.Neurorehabilitation and neural repairComplex resistance training on unstable surfaces improved frontal lobe function, global cognition and attention in people with Parkinson's disease and freezing of gait, more than plain exercise. Better frontal lobe scores explained 43% of the drop in freezing.
• 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.
• PTSystematic Review2023Efficacy of kinesio taping on upper limb volume reduction in patients with breast cancer-related lymphedema: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials.European journal of physical and rehabilitation medicineKinesio taping did not reduce arm swelling better than compression bandages or garments across seven randomised trials, and in the largest trial it came last of five methods. It was rated the most comfortable option. The authors call the evidence weak.
• PTRCT2022Predicting upper extremity motor improvement following therapy using EEG-based connectivity in chronic stroke.NeuroRehabilitationGreater EEG connectivity between the same-side motor and sensory areas before therapy went with a bigger gain on the block-moving test after two weeks of task practice, in 12 people with chronic stroke. The link was the same in both treatment groups.
• PTMeta-Analysis2022Efficacy of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation for improving lower limb function in individuals with neurological disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized sham-controlled trials.Journal of rehabilitation medicineReal rTMS added to rehabilitation improved walking and lower limb muscle strength more than sham, but had no clear effect on mobility or balance. Over half of the comparisons the review planned to pool had no usable data, so the estimates are uncertain.
• PTRCT2022The effects of osteopathic manipulative treatment on pain and disability in patients with chronic neck pain: A single-blinded randomized controlled trial.PM & R : the journal of injury, function, and rehabilitationOsteopathic manipulative treatment reduced average and current neck pain by 1.02 points each and disability by 5.30% compared with a waiting period, with no serious adverse events. Only 3-4 sessions were given and follow-up was short.
• PTMeta-Analysis2022Differential Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Physical Activity Involvements and Exercise Habits in People With and Without Chronic Diseases: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitationStep counts and weekly activity fell during COVID-19 lockdowns while sitting time rose, across 36 studies of 800,256 people. Most evidence came from questionnaires rather than devices, and many people reported doing more activity, not less.
• PTSystematic Review2021Effect of Functional Rehabilitation on Performance of the Star Excursion Balance Test Among Recreational Athletes With Chronic Ankle Instability: A Systematic Review.Archives of rehabilitation research and clinical translationWobble board balance work and hip strengthening gave the largest reach-distance gains in recreational athletes with chronic ankle instability, but most included trials were low quality, so treat the suggested dose of 3 sessions a week for 4-6 weeks as a guide, not proof.
• 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.
• PTRCT2025Intensity-Dependent Effects of Low-Frequency Subthreshold rTMS on Primary Motor Cortex Excitability and Interhemispheric Inhibition in Elderly Participants: A Randomized Trial.Neurorehabilitation and neural repairTwo doses of low-frequency rTMS to the motor cortex did not clearly change cortical responses to stimulation in 20 healthy older adults. Post hoc tests hinted 90% of resting threshold raised responses and 80% lowered them, but neither differed from sham.
• 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.