Deans' stroke musings: Clinical efficacy of acupuncture treatment in combination with RehaCom cognitive training for improving cognitive function in stroke: A 2 × 2 factorial design randomized controlled trial

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.

Saturday, September 10, 2016

Clinical efficacy of acupuncture treatment in combination with RehaCom cognitive training for improving cognitive function in stroke: A 2 × 2 factorial design randomized controlled trial

Impossible to have a direct effect. Energy meridians have never been proven to exist. It is all just theatrical placebo. But if you believe, have at it.
http://www.jamda.com/article/S1525-8610%2816%2930299-7/abstract

Cai Jiang, MD

Shanli Yang, MD

Jing Tao, MD

Jia Huang, MD

Yinyan Li, MM

Haicheng Ye, MM

Shanjia Chen, MD

Wenjun Hong, MM

Lidian Chen, MD

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Open Access

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jamda.2016.07.021

Article Info

Abstract

Objective

The aim of this study was to identify the clinical efficacy of acupuncture in combination with RehaCom cognitive training in poststroke patients with cognitive dysfunction.

Methods/Design

This study was a 2 × 2 factorial design randomized controlled trial comparing acupuncture, computer-assisted cognitive rehabilitation, and the usual treatment by per-protocol analysis. The trial was completed by 204 stroke patients, including 49 patients in a control group, 52 patients in an acupuncture treatment group, 51 patients in a RehaCom training group, and 52 patients in an acupuncture combined with RehaCom group. All of the patients accepted basic treatment and health education. The interventions continued for 12 weeks (30 minutes per day, 5 days per week). The relative cognitive and functional outcomes were measured at baseline and 12 weeks (at the end of intervention) using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), and Functional Independence Measure (FIM) scales.

Results

After 12 weeks of treatment, the functional statuses of the patients in each of the 4 groups showed varying degrees of improvement. Multiple comparisons of the changes in the MMSE, MoCA, and FIM scores indicated that acupuncture combined with RehaCom cognitive training (ACR) had enhanced therapeutic effects on the functional statuses of the stroke patients (P < .05). In addition, ACR had similar therapeutic effects on the functional statuses of the stroke patients according to each of the assessment scales applied (P△_{change value} MMSE = 0.399, P△MoCA = 0.794, P△FIM = 0.862). The interaction effect values between acupuncture and RehaCom training (acceptance or nonacceptance) were as follows: △MMSE: F = 6.251, P = .013; △MoCA: F = 4.991, P = .027; and △FIM: F = 6.317, P = .013. Further, the main effect values for acupuncture and RehaCom training were both significant (P < .05).

Conclusions

There is an interaction effect in the treatment of stroke patients using ACR. The use of acupuncture in combination with RehaCom training has better therapeutic effects on the functional statuses of poststroke patients than the use of either treatment alone, demonstrating the clinical significance of this combination therapy.

Keywords:

Acupuncture, RehaCom training, stroke, cognitive dysfunction

This study was sponsored by the International S&T Cooperation Program of China (ISTCP Program; No. 2011DFG33240), the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China, the Science and technology platform construction project of Fujian science and Technology Department (Grant No. 2015Y2001), the Fujian Key Laboratory of Rehabilitation Technology and the Fujian Provincial Rehabilitation Industrial Institution.