Deans' stroke musings: Effects of Constraint-induced Movement Therapy on Spasticity in Patients with Hemiparesis after Stroke

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Effects of Constraint-induced Movement Therapy on Spasticity in Patients with Hemiparesis after Stroke

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1052305711002795

Background

We sought to examine the effects of constraint-induced movement therapy on spasticity in patients with hemiparesis after stroke in 10 patients with chronic hemiparesis in their upper extremities.

Methods

Patients underwent a modified version of constraint-induced movement therapy (5 hours daily for 10 weekdays over 2 consecutive weeks). Motor function was assessed by the Fugl-Meyer Assessment, Wolf Motor Function Test, and the Motor Activity Log. Spasticity was assessed by the modified Ashworth scale and electromyography (F frequency, mean F/M ratio). These assessments were obtained immediately before and after the 2-week intervention. Wilcoxon rank sum tests were performed on these data (P < .05).

Results

Constraint-induced movement therapy significantly improved hand and arm function as indicated by the Fugl-Meyer Assessment, Wolf Motor Function Test, and the Motor Activity Log scores. Constraint-induced movement therapy also reduced spasticity as assessed by the modified Ashworth scale, F frequency, and mean F/M ratio.