Neuroskeptic has an interesting (and rather disturbing) post on a "treatment" called le packing used on autistic children in France. It involves being restained and wrapped entirely in cold wraps. While hydrotherapy in and off itself does not require restaint, this seems to be emphasized in le packing.
So does hydrotherapy work for mental illness? In interviews with nurses who used hydrotherapy on mental health patients when it was reutinely used in mental hospitals the nurses claimed that it worked.
But then again, doing anything can often work temporarily. The same article claims that hydrotherapy is regaining in popularity, so again... what exactly happens in the body when cold compresses are applied? Where are the randomized controlled double blind studies on hydrotherapy and it's affects on mental health?
The closest I can find is this article about using alternahealth treatments for bronchial illness:
"Along with treating diseases and improving wound healing, circulation, relaxation, digestion, and the immune system, hydrotherapy has been proven to be beneficial for people with acne, anxiety, arthritis, asthma, back pain, burns, chronic fatigue syndrome, constipation, depression, and varicose veins etc"
It's been proven? Where? There seems to be no reference to any actual research mentioned. One of the following sentences follows that up,
"The majority of the evidence on the effectiveness of hydrotherapy to treat the described disease states and 'conditions' comes from small case series/reports and subsequent low level evidence."
I see. So what you meant to say is that there is no proof that hydrotherapy is effective.
Googling hydrotherapy and mental health we find lot's of snake oil salesmen promoting hydrotherapy with no real research to back it up.
"With the regular use of Medical Hydrotherapy™, and the proper intake of healthy water, the right minerals and nutrients our body can overcome almost anything."
(Excuse me I just spit out my coffee snortling.) Really? Well that sounds promising, on what do you base this claim?
On google scholar we find lot's of studies on hydrotherapy for fibromyalgia and other physical health problems. If hydrotherapy is really "gaining popularity", I'm still waiting on the availability of studies that prove there is any reason for this to happen.
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