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 682 OF 704 · NEWEST FIRST

• Meta-Analysis2024A systematic review and meta-analysis of atypical visual attention towards non-social stimuli in preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism ResearchPreschoolers with autism look longer at non-social images than typically developing children, but only when the images match interests commonly reported in autism, such as geometric patterns or machines. Ordinary toys and objects made no difference.
• SLPMeta-Analysis2024Dysphagia Prevalence in Progressive Supranuclear Palsy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.DysphagiaAbout 79% of people with PSP have dysphagia and roughly a quarter aspirate on instrumental testing. Estimates were lower when dysphagia was judged by water swallow tests (56%) and higher with FEES or videofluoroscopy (89%). Swallowing should be assessed early.
• PTOTMeta-Analysis2024The Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy in Helping People on Sick Leave to Return to Work: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Journal of occupational rehabilitationCBT-based programmes cut sick leave by 3.649 days and got more people back to work, but anxiety and work ability did not improve. Sixteen of the 34 treatment groups combined CBT with other treatments, so the effect cannot be pinned on CBT alone.
• PTSystematic Review2024The methodological quality of clinical trials of physical therapy for low back pain varies between countries with different income levels. A meta-epidemiological study.Brazilian journal of physical therapyTrials of physical therapy for low back pain run in low- and lower-middle-income countries scored lower on methodological quality than trials from richer countries, 4.8 versus 5.5 points out of 10. Seven in ten trials came from high-income countries.
• SLPMeta-Analysis2023The effects of lingual training: a systematic review with meta-analysis.CoDASTongue exercises raised maximum tongue pressure: about 6.05 kPa more at the front of the tongue and 5.45 kPa more at the back than in control groups. Most studies had biases in how people were allocated and assessed, so the evidence is rated low.
• PTOTRCT2023Fidelity of Delivery in a Multisite Randomized Clinical Trial of Intervention Efficacy for Infants With Unilateral Cerebral Palsy.Pediatric physical therapy : the official publication of the Section on Pediatrics of the American Physical Therapy AssociationTherapists delivered baby bimanual and baby constraint-induced therapy as designed in 64 of 72 recorded home sessions. All 8 lower-fidelity sessions were Baby-BIM, 6 of them from home visit 4 onwards. This shows delivery, not whether either therapy works.
• PTOTRCT2023Multisensory Stimulation and Priming (MuSSAP) in 4-10 Months Old Infants with a Unilateral Brain Lesion: A Pilot Randomised Clinical Trial.Occupational therapy internationalAdding a wristband that gave light, song and vibration to eight weeks of home hand training did not improve hand use more than the home training alone in 16 infants with a brain injury on one side. Both groups improved.
• SLPRCT2023A Pilot Randomized Control Trial of Motor-Based Treatments for Childhood Apraxia of Speech: Rapid Syllable Transition Treatment and Ultrasound Biofeedback.American journal of speech-language pathologyBoth treatments improved speech sound accuracy on words that were never practised, and children kept those gains a month later. Neither treatment beat the other, and there was no untreated comparison group.
• PTSystematic Review2023Effectiveness of an educational approach between adolescents and adults with patellofemoral pain syndrome: a scoping review with meta-analysis.Journal of physical therapy scienceEducation alone did not beat education combined with exercise for knee pain in patellofemoral pain at mid-term follow-up, and the evidence is too weak to say whether adolescents respond differently from adults. Only two trials could be pooled.
• SLPOther2023Functional Analysis of Injectable Substance Treatment on Surgically Injured Rabbit Vocal Folds.Journal of voice : official journal of the Voice FoundationNo injectable tested in this rabbit study clearly beat saline on vocal fold function: expert ratings of vibration found no significant group differences. Dexamethasone and hyaluronic acid/gelatin lowered fundamental frequency versus saline, which the authors read as softer tissue. Three larynges per group.
• SLPRCT2023Mobile Health School Screening and Telemedicine Referral to Improve Access to Specialty Care in Rural Alaska: Integrating Mixed Methods Data to Contextualize Trial Outcomes.Ear and hearingTelemedicine referral got 68.5% of children seen within nine months of a failed school hearing screen, against 32.1% with a letter home. Where it worked, clinics had staff to spare, one person owned the follow-up, school and clinic talked, and families knew why it mattered.
• PTMeta-Analysis2022Global prevalence of cerebral palsy: A systematic analysis.Developmental medicine and child neurologyPre/perinatal cerebral palsy is falling in high-income regions, to about 1.5 per 1000 live births across 41 regions in 27 countries. Postneonatal CP showed no clear trend, and reported low- and middle-income rates are more than double.
• SLPRCT2022Measuring the impact of a training intervention for early childhood centre staff on child development outcomes: Findings from a cluster randomized control field trial in rural Malawi.Child: care, health and developmentTraining community childcare volunteers for 14 days, plus simple learning materials, did not significantly reduce children's developmental delay a year later in rural Malawi. Language delay fell 3.2 points more in these centres, but that could be chance.
• OTRCT2022Effects of Task-Based LSVT-BIG Intervention on Hand Function, Activity of Daily Living, Psychological Function, and Quality of Life in Parkinson's Disease: A Randomized Control Trial.Occupational therapy internationalIn 14 people with Parkinson's, adding task-based LSVT-BIG to occupational therapy improved everyday activity scores and anxiety more than occupational therapy plus relaxation, and improved hand dexterity in both hands. Depression and quality of life did not differ between the groups.
• SLPMeta-Analysis2022Quantifying the Effects of Motivation on Listening Effort: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Trends in hearingListeners put more effort into listening when they were motivated, whether by money, feedback, feeling competent or being told they were being assessed. Personality traits mattered less. How effort was measured changed how large the effect appeared.
• PTMeta-Analysis2022Effect of Pulmonary Rehabilitation Approaches on Dyspnea, Exercise Capacity, Fatigue, Lung Functions, and Quality of Life in Patients With COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitationPulmonary rehabilitation improved walking distance (65.85 m further on the 6-minute walk test), breathlessness and fatigue more than control in people with COVID-19. It did not improve lung function or quality of life. Eight small trials, 449 people.
• SLPSystematic Review2022Language disorder and internalizing mental health problems in youth offenders: A systematic review.International journal of language & communication disordersYouth offenders often have language difficulties and often have depression or anxiety, but whether the two go together is not established. The two studies that tested the link found no association, and half the included studies never reported mental health by language ability.
• PTOTRCT2022Use of an EMG-Controlled Game as a Therapeutic Tool to Retrain Hand Muscle Activation Patterns Following Stroke: A Pilot Study.Journal of neurologic physical therapy : JNPTChronic stroke survivors with moderate hand weakness got faster and more direct at steering a cursor with their hand muscles after nine sessions of an EMG-controlled game. Training with the affected hand alone or with both hands worked equally well.
• OTMeta-Analysis2022Perinatal Physiological and Psychological Risk Factors and Childhood Sleep Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Journal of developmental and behavioral pediatrics : JDBPPrenatal alcohol, tobacco and preterm birth, and depression before or after birth were each linked to more sleep problems and shorter sleep in children. Maternal anxiety, caffeine and opioid maintenance treatment were not. This is risk-factor evidence; no treatment was tested.
• PTMeta-Analysis2025Virtual reality-based interventions enhance functional status, balance and muscle strength in patients with ankle instability: a systematic review with meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.European journal of physical and rehabilitation medicineVirtual reality training beat conventional therapy or usual care for ankle function and for static and dynamic balance in people with ankle instability, mostly young men. Strength gains were patchy: plantar flexion and eversion only, and not hopping or jumping.
• SLPRCT2025Effects of Puree Type and Color on Ratings of Pharyngeal Residue, Penetration, and Aspiration during FEES: A Prospective Study of 37 Dysphagic Outpatient Adults.Folia phoniatrica et logopaedica : official organ of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics (IALP)Ratings of throat residue during FEES were higher for pudding than applesauce, and higher for blue- or green-dyed purees than plain ones. Penetration and aspiration ratings did not differ. Whether residue truly differs or raters are swayed by color is unclear.
• OTRCT2025Effects of Client-Centered Occupational Therapy Intervention in Older Adults With Depression: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Occupational therapy internationalIn 30 older adults with long-standing depression, 16 sessions of client-centred occupational therapy at home reduced depression and stress more than case management plus seated gymnastics, and improved social integration. Daily-living skills did not change in either group, and anxiety did not differ between groups.
• OTSystematic Review2025Oral care interventions for autistic individuals: A systematic review.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceVisual supports such as social stories, videos and picture schedules, used before and during dental visits, were the strategies most often linked to less anxiety and better cooperation at the dentist. But only 5 of the 36 studies were judged strong on quality.
• SLPMeta-Analysis2025Examining the Efficacy of Culturally Responsive Interventions for Autistic Children and Their Families: A Meta-Analysis.Journal of autism and developmental disordersAdapting autism interventions to a family's culture or language improved children's social communication and mental health and parents' mental health and delivery of strategies in 24 studies. General development and autism features did not improve, and no study separated the adapting from the intervention.
• OTRCT2025Effect of Telerehabilitation on Handwriting Performance in Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Randomized Controlled Trial.Child: care, health and developmentEight weeks of online, therapist-led fine motor training improved handwriting and fine motor scores in 6-8 year olds with inattentive-type ADHD, with mothers helping at home. Writing rate did not improve. All 35 children finished the programme.
• SLPRCT2025The Benefits of Conversation Group Treatment for Individuals With Chronic Aphasia: Updated Evidence From a Multisite Randomized Controlled Trial on Measures of Language and Communication.American journal of speech-language pathologyBoth conversation treatment formats improved naming for people with chronic aphasia. The trial's main measure, how effectively people felt they communicated, improved only in the large group and only straight after treatment. The overall analysis of that measure found no difference.
• PTOTRCT2025Effects of Inline Skating Exercise on Symptoms, Executive Functions, and Motor Proficiency in Children With ADHD: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Occupational therapy internationalTwelve weeks of inline skating improved ADHD symptoms, executive function and motor proficiency more than waiting did in children with ADHD, and the gains were still there at follow-up. The trial was small, the changes modest, and medication was not recorded.
• PTOTMeta-Analysis2025Effects of brain-computer interface based training on post-stroke upper-limb rehabilitation: a meta-analysis.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationAdding brain-computer interface training to usual rehabilitation improved upper-limb motor scores after stroke: 3.69 points more than control on the Fugl-Meyer upper-extremity scale. Independence in daily activities and spasticity did not improve.
• OTMeta-Analysis2024A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials to reduce burden, stress, and strain in informal stroke caregivers.Clinical rehabilitationPooling 19 trials with 1440 informal stroke caregivers, programmes built from education, support and problem-solving did not significantly reduce caregiver burden, strain or stress.
• Meta-Analysis2024Gray matter covariations in autism: out-of-sample replication using the ENIGMA autism cohort.Molecular autismTwo brain structure patterns earlier linked to autism did not replicate in a larger independent group of 770 autistic and 924 non-autistic people. Differences between the groups varied so much from one scanning site to another that no single average pattern held.
• PTRCT2024Improving trunk posture control in children with CP through a cable-driven robotic hippotherapy: A randomized controlled feasibility study.Gait & postureChildren with cerebral palsy tolerated a robot horse that rocks the pelvis while they sit astride, and their trunk control improved more than with conventional training after 6 weeks. The difference was gone 8 weeks later.
• SLPSystematic Review2023Application of Ultrasonography in Neurogenic Dysphagia: A Systematic Review.DysphagiaIn acute stroke, the less the hyoid and larynx came together during a swallow, the worse the patient's oral intake and bedside screening scores. Ten small studies, all with different protocols, so no cut-off values yet.
• SLPRCT2023Cognitive Therapy for Children with Intellectual Disabilities: A New Look at Social Adaptation Skills and Interpersonal Relationships.Occupational therapy internationalChildren aged 11 to 13 with intellectual disabilities scored higher on all eight areas of a social-competence questionnaire after four months of group cognitive therapy sessions. There was no control group, so school, time and repeated testing could explain the gains.
• PTRCT2023Immediate neck hypoalgesic effects of craniocervical flexion exercises and cervical retraction exercises among individuals with non-acute neck pain and a directional preference for retraction or extension: preliminary pretest-posttest randomized experimental design.The Journal of manual & manipulative therapyA single 9-minute session of either craniocervical flexion or cervical retraction exercise made the neck less tender to pressure, with no significant difference between them. Retraction gave more range-of-motion gain in these 19 young people whose symptoms eased with retraction or extension.
• PTMeta-Analysis2023Does Exercise Attenuate Disease Progression in People With Parkinson's Disease? A Systematic Review With Meta-Analyses.Neurorehabilitation and neural repairExercise slightly improved 'off'-medication motor scores and raised BDNF compared with no exercise, but the evidence is low to very low certainty and exercise did not change inflammatory or oxidative markers or brain volume. No one exercise type was clearly better.
• PTSystematic Review2023Comparing the occurrence of chronic physical disorders in self-employed individuals with that of employees: A systematic review.Work (Reading, Mass.)Self-employed workers had higher rates of heart disease and stroke than nonmanual workers but lower rates than manual workers. Most one-off surveys found more muscle and joint complaints among the self-employed than employees.
• PTSystematic Review2022A Systematic Review of the Effect of Hearing Aids on Static and Dynamic Balance in Adults with Hearing Impairment.Trends in hearingHearing aids improved how steadily people stood still in six of the seven studies that tested it, mostly only when sound was playing. All three studies of walking and moving balance found no benefit. Every study was weak, so the evidence is not conclusive.
• PTRCT2022Do Physical Therapy and Yoga Improve Pain and Disability through Psychological Mechanisms? A Causal Mediation Analysis of Adults with Chronic Low Back Pain.The Journal of orthopaedic and sports physical therapyImprovements in perceived stress explained about a third of physical therapy's benefit on back-related disability at one year compared with an education book. The advantage was small, and no psychological factor explained PT's or yoga's effect on pain.
• SLPSystematic Review2022Developmental delay in infants and toddlers with sickle cell disease: a systematic review.Developmental medicine and child neurologyChildren under four with sickle cell disease scored below average on developmental tests more often than the tests' own norms predict, with delays found in 17.5% to 50% of children across studies. Cognition was affected most, and delays became more apparent with age.
• OTSystematic Review2022Barriers and facilitating factors influencing implementation of occupational therapy home assessment recommendations: A mixed methods systematic review.Australian occupational therapy journalStudies reported better uptake of home assessment recommendations when patients helped decide what was recommended, carers were involved, equipment was paid for, and follow-up visits happened. Across 22 studies, implementation ranged from 55% to 90%.
• PTOTSystematic Review2022A systematic review of working conditions and occupational health in home office.Work (Reading, Mass.)Home-based teleworkers reported poorly set-up workstations, long unbroken computer hours, and pain in the neck, back, shoulders, wrists and eyes, yet most get no employer training or equipment. Many still felt healthier at home and kept working while unwell.
• SLPMeta-Analysis2022Does acupuncture therapy improve language function of patients with aphasia following ischemic stroke? A systematic review and meta-analysis.NeuroRehabilitationAdding acupuncture to speech and language therapy improved some language scores in people with aphasia after stroke, especially in the sub-acute phase, but not in the acute phase or on every scale. The 13 trials were small, and none reported side effects.
• PTRCT2021Development of a single-session physiotherapy and self-management intervention for the treatment of primary traumatic anterior shoulder dislocation for the 'Acute Rehabilitation following Traumatic anterior shoulder dISlocAtioN (ARTISAN)' multi centre RCT.PhysiotherapyNo outcomes are reported. This paper describes how a single-session physiotherapy and self-management package was designed for people after a first traumatic anterior shoulder dislocation, and it is this package that the ongoing ARTISAN trial is testing.
• SLPMeta-AnalysisOccupational Hearing Loss Associated With Non-Gaussian Noise: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Ear and hearingWorkers exposed to impulsive, impact or intermittent noise had more high-frequency hearing loss than workers exposed to steady noise at the same noise energy, and around a third of 23,261 exposed workers already had it. Risk rose with age, exposure duration and cumulative dose.
• Meta-Analysis2025The Association Between Maternal Asthma and Child Autism: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism ResearchChildren of mothers with asthma were about a third more likely to be autistic, pooled across 19 studies. The studies cannot show asthma causes autism: none accounted for autism running in families, which may explain part of the link.
• OTMeta-Analysis2025Online interventions for the mental health and well-being of parents of children with additional needs: Systematic review and meta-analysis.Australian occupational therapy journalOnline programmes improved parents' depression, stress and wellbeing when trial results were pooled, though the trials disagreed so much, especially on stress, that those pooled figures are unreliable. Only 3 of the 30 studies involved an occupational therapist.
• OTSystematic Review2025Occupational therapy interventions in facilitating return to work in patients with traumatic brain injury: A systematic review.Work (Reading, Mass.)The reviewers conclude that return-to-work rates were highest when vocational and cognitive rehabilitation were combined with a multidisciplinary team, and clients said OT advocacy with employers helped most. But the evidence is thin: the highest-quality trial found no difference at 12 months.
• PTOTMeta-Analysis2025Short-term effect of prism adaptation treatment on severity of unilateral spatial neglect following right hemispheric stroke: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of rehabilitation medicinePrism adaptation improved unilateral spatial neglect symptoms shortly after treatment in people with right-hemisphere stroke, but not how they managed daily activities, and the evidence is very weak. The improvement appeared only with prisms of 10° or more.
• SLPRCT2025Palin Stuttering Therapy for School aged Children and usual treatment: A randomised controlled trial feasibility study.Journal of fluency disordersChildren who got Palin therapy and children who got usual NHS care both improved on most measures, with no significant difference between the two. The only significant difference favoured Palin, on parents' knowledge and confidence. This pilot was not designed to show which therapy works.
• OTSystematic Review2024A rapid realist review of clinical neuropsychology rehabilitation programmes to improve psychological wellbeing and quality of life for people with acquired brain injuries.Neuropsychological rehabilitationAcross 35 studies, programmes that reportedly helped people after acquired brain injury shared six features: changing how people relate to their thoughts, building self-worth, teaching strategies to mastery, connection with others, adapting to the person, and a responsive facilitator. No treatment was tested here.