Deans' stroke musings: Audio-Guided Versus Video-Guided Mental Practice in Reducing Upper Extremity Hemiparesis

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.

Monday, October 11, 2021

Audio-Guided Versus Video-Guided Mental Practice in Reducing Upper Extremity Hemiparesis

Have your doctor get the audio for the mental practice.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmr.2021.07.600 Get rights and content

Research Objectives

To compare the effect of audio-guided mental practice (MP) and video-guided MP on impairment and functional abilities of upper extremity (UE) hemiparesis following stroke.

Design

Randomized controlled trial. Participants were randomly assigned: audio-guided MP, video-guided MP, repetitive task practice (RTP), or traditional therapy (control) groups. Baseline and post-intervention scores from outcome measures were compared.

Setting

Inpatient Rehabilitation Hospital.

Participants

Inclusion Criteria: ages 18-80, less than one month post stroke, moderate UE hemiparesis. Exclusion: history of prior stroke, severe pain, comorbidities, spasticity, aphasia or cognitive impairments, inability to perform MP, non-english speaking.18 participants completed the study, two participants were eligible and refused.

Interventions

MP groups performed MP five days a week (via video or audio guidance), of the following tasks: wiping a table, picking up a cup, brushing hair, and turning the pages of a book. The RTP group physically performed the same tasks. The control group received traditional stroke rehabilitation.

Main Outcome Measures

Wolf Motor Function Test (WMFT) and Fugl Meyer Assessment- Upper Extremity (FM).

Results

Wilcoxon signed-rank test demonstrated that audio MP increased FM scores from pre-test (Mdn = 34.0, Mean = 34.0, SD =9.56) to post-test (Mdn = 49.0, Mean = 49.6, SD =7.5), n= 5, Z= 2.03, p= .042, r= .91). Similar improvement in FM scores was found with traditional therapy. Audio MP also decreased WMFT time, pre-test (Mdn = 10.5, Mean = 49.9, SD= 59.1) to post-test (Mdn = 4.1, Mean 3.5, SD = 1.4), Z=2.02, p=.043, r=.90.

Conclusions

Audio MP and traditional therapy appear to decrease impairment and increase the functional abilities of the UE following stroke. Video MP and RTP did not have this effect. These preliminary findings expand therapeutic options to existing occupational therapy practice in stroke rehabilitation.