Hello everyone you are watching PhysioClassroom channel and in today's video we are going to talk about the Bobath therapy. Bobath therapy is also known as the NDT or the Neurodevelopmental Therapy. Now Bobath or the NDT therapy is a problem solving approach which is used for the assessment and treatment of conditions like cerebral palsy, stroke, head injury and other allied neurological disorders.
Now I described NDT as a problem solving approach which needs to be further understood and emphasized. Therapists who practice NDT therapy considers every patient as unique. Every patient having different sets of problem which needs to be tackled using different therapeutic strategies.
Now NDT therapist first thoroughly evaluates and examines the patient, finds out the problems and then thinks about the different ways in which those problems can be solved. That's why entity therapy or the Bobath therapy is considered as the best problem solving therapy which is now available for neurotherapists worldwide. So now let's talk a little bit about how did this therapy came into existence. This therapy was developed by Bertha Bobath who was a German physiotherapist and her husband Carol Bobath who was a psychiatrist as well as a neurophysiologist. It was the year 1948 when Berta Bobath through trial and error method developed different therapeutic techniques and showed that abnormal tone can be altered in hemiplegic or stroke patients.
Berta Bobath was in fact the first physiotherapist who showed to the medical fraternity that In hemiplegic or the stroke patients not only the abnormal tone can be influenced but also the normal motor movement patterns can be retrained in such patients. Bobath totally rejected the concept of compensatory training that is to train the patient use the normal side when one or half side of the body gets paralyzed. This is so because compensatory training totally neglects the potential. of the hemiplegic side to function normally.
Now based on this positive treatment outcomes from this newly developed approach, Karel Bobath, husband of Berta Bobath, researched further and wrote various theoretical explanations to demonstrate how actually the improvements in such hemiplegic patients were coming after utilizing this new practice model. Subsequently, the Bobath therapy started gaining popularity and it was being used for rehabilitation of hemiplegic cerebral palsy and other such conditions. As the approach grew, lot of further questions started arising and further theoretical explanations were sought which led to further redevelopment and redesigning of the new treatment model.
The findings made by Bobath was totally contradictory to the understanding of motor control at that time which was purely based on the reflex hierarchical theory given by Charles Sherrington. Now according to the reflex hierarchical theory if the brain gets damaged then the lower centers take charge which leads to the production or development of abnormal tone but Bobath for the first time showed that through neuroplasticity the brain can or have the ability to regain control over the lower centers and thereby result in regulation of tone and production of normal movement patterns through the hemiplegic side. Now since the development of the Bobath therapy in 1948, the approach has been continuously evolving through different researches and so the different theories, practice models, concepts, philosophies of the approach are being continuously modified which has resulted in the addition of many new treatment methods to the approach. Bobath therapy is now more commonly known as the NDT or the neurodevelopmental therapy technique.
Now in the last part of this introductory video of NDT therapy series, let's talk little bit about how a therapist can start practicing Bobath or the NDT therapy approach in neurological patients. Now to practice NTT therapy, a therapist must develop good posture and movement analysis skills. Because in NTT, we believe that every patient is different, having different sets of problem. So, to practice NTT therapy means that your therapy is never stereotypic. You are never giving the same sort of rehabilitation to each and every type of hemiplegic patient.
There are a lot of questions that should arise in the mind of therapist who wants to practice entity and we will be discussing them in detail in the subsequent videos but for now let's just consider few important questions that should start arising as soon as we start seeing a hemiplegic patient. The therapist should immediately think first that what is the current functional status of my patient, how much is he able to perform, using his hemiplegic side or how much activity from the hemiplegic side is being done throughout the day by the patient. Now, what are the different reasons or the possible explanations for not able to recruit the hemiplegic side into daily activities? A therapist tries to go as deep as possible while analyzing all these problems. He can think, is it the range of motion which is limited?
Is it the strength which is not available for performing the action or is it that the patient is not aware of the body part, there is lack of somatosensory awareness or is it that patient is not getting good visual feedback from the surrounding. So there are lot many components and we will be discussing them in the subsequent videos. This particular series on antitherapy is being made with the intention. to make this already popular approach even more popular and easily available to practicing therapists across the globe. We will try and share as much as possible the different treatment techniques, assessment skills, handling skills that can be utilized to treat and treat patients.
See you in the next part of the Entity Therapy series. Till then, keep learning, keep sharing and stay tuned.