Spasticity rant - failures in stroke rehab

I wrote this 3 years ago, nothing in it has really changed. Ask your doctor about this stupidity, its the only way we will get this researched.
Sorry about ranting on spasticity. I guess if I look at it objectively I have a mild form, it is just that if I was truly paralyzed and only had to recover function instead of suppressing spasticity/tone first and then work on the paralyzed muscle it would be much easier. I have done both baclofen and zanaflex which didn't help the spasticity at all, just made me tired so I quit them. I have had several rounds of botox which helped with knocking out my bicep so my tricep could start working. Finger flexors were also knocked out but since my finger extensors need to move control to a different spot in my brain that didn't result in any improvement.
Found an interesting site Movement Disorder Virtual University that has lots of detail on spasticity. Here is the link http://www.mdvu.org/library/disease/spasticity/spa_mpath.asp

If you follow it down quite a few levels  you can find this
Subject: Incidence and Consequences of Spasticity After Stroke

Date: 2/20/2004

Spasticity affects less than one quarter of stroke victims, according to this study.
Muscle overactivity and its consequences were assessed in 95 patients both immediately after and three months a first-time stroke. Seventy-seven (81%) were initially hemiparetic, of whom 20 had spasticity. Among these 20 patients, 14 had hyperreflexia. Within these patients, 3 had clonus, and 3 had muscle stiffness. Modified Ashworth score was grade 1 in 10 patients, grade 1+ in 7, and grade 2 in 3. None had grades of 3 or 4. At three months, 64 patients (67%) were hemiparetic, and 18 spastic, reflecting 5 whose tone normalized and 3 who became spastic in the interim. The correlation between muscle tone and a range of motor and activity scores was low for most measures at both time points, except for active movements initially, and rapid movement scores and 9-Hole Peg Test scores at three months.
The authors conclude, “spasticity seems to contribute to motor impairments and activity limitations and may be a severe problem for some patients after stroke,” but, given the relatively low numbers of patients with spasticity, they note, “Our findings support the opinion…that the focus on spasticity in stroke rehabilitation is out of step with its clinical importance. (What the hell?  - (they wouldn't say this if they had to recover from spasticity. )

Basically since only 25% of stroke survivors have it and most seem to be able to do ADL's, clinical research seems unlikely. So we are on our own unless we can somehow change that mindset. I really disagree with these authors, I want to recover everything , not just good enough for my ADLs

As a final comment, my ADL's are just fine. If I can get past the spasticity I can start doing all the normal stuff I did pre-stroke which is why I am extremely interested in this.
Posted in 6 stroke forums with no positive answers

One would think that you should be able to interrupt the signals telling your muscles to fire. This is why eStim seems stupid, you are sending electrical signals to the antagonist muscles hoping to fire them stronger than the spastic ones. Why not send electrical signals to your spastic muscles telling them to relax? Or do we not know this and need to research it?