Background and purpose: Fatigue is a common symptom of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) that is purported to cause significant distress and have detrimental effects on daily living functioning, social and occupational obligations, and overall well-being. Complementary therapies are widely used by people with MS and Progressive Hydrotherapy is a form of complementary therapies. The aim of this study is to assess the effects of applying Hydrotherapy on fatigue of Multiple Sclerosis patients.Materials and methods: This is a Quasi-experimental study. 50 Multiple Sclerosis patients were selected with convenient sampling according to specific criteria then assigned to experimental and control groups (25 patients in each group) with random allocation. Data collector tools included: demographic questionnaire, Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), Self report checklists. Hydrotherapy performed for 24 sessions by experimental group during three months but no intervention was done for control group. Statistical analysis was done by SPSS software.Results: There was no significant difference between two groups in mean scores of fatigue before the study but this test showed different significance between two groups, 4, 8 and 12 weeks after intervention (P<0.05). ANOVA test with repeated measurements showed that there is a significant difference in mean score of fatigue between two groups in 4 times (P<0.05).Conclusion: The results of this study show that Hydrotherapy is practically feasible and could decrease fatigue of MS patients; so that applying this technique offered to these patients.

Hydrotherapy has positive effects on the behavior of people with autism. Studies show people with autism have serotonin deficiency. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of hydrotherapy on the serum serotonin level in children with autism spectrum disorders. In this semi-experimental and applied study, a pretest-posttest, control-group design was applied. Considering the control variables, 32 autistic children were randomly assigned to the control (n=16) and experimental (n=16) groups as the sample. The Halliwick hydrotherapy intervention continued for 8 weeks, 3 sessions per week for 60 minutes. Blood samples were collected to measure the serum serotonin level before and after 8 weeks of intervention. The results of covariance test indicated no significant difference in the serotonin level between the experimental and control groups in the pretest and posttest (P≥ 0. 05). Also, serotonin reduced in the experimental group more than the control group. According to these results, it can be concluded that hydrotherapy reduces the serum serotonin level of children with autism. In other words, a reduction in serotonin level is associated with an increase in serotonin absorption of the body.