Definitions for "Physical Medicine"
A specialty in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease or injury, and the rehabilitation from impairments and disabilities, using physical agents such as light, heat, cold, water, electricity, therapeutic exercise, and mechanical apparatus, and sometimes pharmaceutical agents. Also called Physiatry.
Impairments and disabilities are treated to restore physical, psychological, social and vocational function and alleviation of pain.
Physical medicine refers to the use of physical measures in the treatment of disease. These include: therapeutic exercise, massage, and osteopathic joint mobilization and immobilization techniques. It includes Applied Kinesiology and Cranio-Sacral Therapy; a system of body work that believes in allowing the body to heal itself by treating structural problems like, muscle spasm, curvature of the spine and bad posture.