PHYSIOTHERAPY AND PSYCHIATRY

I feel quite sure there must be many words written about the wedding of these two disciplines somewhere, but among my personal library which includes some well-known psychiatric text books, I was rather appalled at the paucity of information which I could use in this talk. An example of what I found was in the section on treatment in a book entitled “Aids to Psychiatry.” It read like this:—“Various manipulations and exercises may be prescribed in convalescence with the object of stimulating mind and body. Persons suffering from mental disorders tend to hold themselves in careless, relaxed attitudes, so that respiration is insufficiently performed, and oxygenation is less active than normal. Outdoor games of all kinds are to be encouraged as a means of improving the general health, and as a counteraction to introspection. Such measures tend also to foster the social instinct.”1 There followed brief comments on relaxation exercises for use in anxiety neurosis and insomnia, special exercises in hysterical paralysis and exercises for some forms of tic and habit spasm