Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Practice

The past decade in science has seen an influx of new research articles showing the relationship between the human gut microbiome and its direct or indirect effect on the Central Nervous System (CNS). Much of the current research points to microbial therapy as a potential treatment option for many mental health disorders and conditions.

Suicide rates are on the rise in the United States as is mortality associated with opioid toxicity. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 7% of opioid overdose deaths are suicide, but this number may be under-reported. Many people who use opioids or have opioid use disorder, (OUD), may have “passive” intentions to commit suicide that are difficult to quantify. Further, both chronic pain and mental health disorders are prevalent in those who use opioids, and both are independently associated with suicide. It appears that suicide is associated with a trio of interlocking risk factors: opioids and opioid use disorder, chronic pain, and psychiatric illness.

Depression is one of the most common comorbidities of chronic diseases including diabetes and obstructive lung diseases (emphysema, chronic bronchitis, and asthma). Obstructive lung diseases and depression have few symptoms in common. However, they are both common in adults and associated with chronic inflammation. It is not clear if their coappearance in diabetic patients is coincidental or associated beyond that expected by chance.

At the beginning there was an international network of physical therapists working in the field of psychiatry and mental health with the origin at Leuven University (Belgium) from in 2006. The International Organization of Physical Therapy in Mental Health (IOPTMH) was accepted as a World Confederation for Physical Therapy (WCPT) subgroup at the 17th General Meeting, in 2011 and reconfirmed in 2015 and 2019, including 21 member countries, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Colombia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Japan, Latvia, Mexico, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UK, but within IOPTMH, there is a network of individual physical therapists, representing 59 nations from 6 continents.

According to the International Organization of Physical Therapy in Mental Health (IOPTMH), physiotherapy in mental health is a recognized specialty of physical therapy, with a subgroup representing physiotherapists from around the world before the World Confederation of Physical Therapy (WCPT). It is implemented in different settings, in health, psychiatry and psychosomatic medicine.