History of Physical Therapy

Physical therapy, also referred to as physiotherapy, is a branch of medical science that deals with the treatment of injury and/or disorder by using physical methods. It is performed under the guidance of a physical therapist (PT) or an assistant (PTA). During a physiotherapy session, a therapist may use heat, cold, exercise, and at times, electricity. Like other medical fields, physical therapy has evolved tremendously. Let's take a look about the brief history of physical therapy.

History of Physical Therapy

The practice of physical therapy can be traced back to about 460 BC, when physicians Hippocrates and Hector used massage therapy and hydrotherapy (water therapy) to treat their patients. Massage therapy is a technique of physiotherapy, whereby basic hand movements are used to reduce stress, relieve pain and stimulate healing.

The earliest documented record of the founding of a professional group for physical therapy, was the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, in England, in 1894. It was a group formed by trained nurses with the aim to provide physiotherapy services to the general public. Following this, several institutes started training programs for physiotherapy, for example in 1913, the University of Otago, New Zealand, established the School of Physiotherapy.

However, it was during the World War I (1917-1918) that physiotherapy was performed widely as a rehabilitation therapy for people who were injured in the war. People employed for such rehabilitative work were known as reconstruction aides and they were trained nurses having background of physical education and massage therapy.

Shortly after this, in 1921, Mary McMillan (the first physical therapy aide) founded the American Women's Physical Therapeutic Association, which was later changed to the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). She contributed a lot to the reconstruction aide services and came to be known as "The Mother of Physical Therapy". It was in the same year, that the first research paper on physical therapy was published in the US. The year 1921, was regarded as a landmark, in the field of physical therapy, as national accreditation of physiotherapy programs was introduced.

In the subsequent years, more research studies were conducted and papers were published on physical therapy. In 1924, the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation was established to fight the polio epidemic. Till the 1940s, common physiotherapy practices included massage, exercise and traction. It was only in the early 1950s that manipulative therapy for the spine and joint pain was introduced in the British Commonwealth countries. It is to be noted that until this time, physiotherapy was practiced only in hospitals.

In 1956, physical therapists, APTA and medical researchers jointly worked and cooperated on the Salk vaccine (first polio vaccine developed by Dr.Jonas Salk) trials, which led to the development of a polio vaccine. By this time, physiotherapy was being practiced as a common health care profession in the US. In 1974, clinical specializations in physical therapy was made possible, with the foundation of Orthopedic Section by APTA.

With the development of computer and technology in the 1980s, more advancement was observed in the field of physiotherapy techniques. For example, electrical stimulators and iontophoresis devices were introduced for practicing physiotherapy.

Nowadays, from a layman having back pain to a sportsperson suffering from a sports injury, physical therapy has become a common procedure for treatment of musculoskeletal injury and disorder.