Method for Enhancing Real-World Use of a More Affected Arm in Chronic Stroke

This is totally useless for persons like myself that have spasticity that prevents reaching and opening the hand.

 I would never do CIMT/forced use; I couldn't eat, dress or go to the bathroom. Why doesn't your doctor and therapist use this? 

And use of the good side recovers the bad side, or don't you know about that research?

Exercising the good side to recover the 'bad' side. December 2012)

The latest here:

Method for Enhancing Real-World Use of a More Affected Arm in Chronic Stroke

2013, Stroke

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Treatment Outcome,

Exercise therapy,

Medicine,

Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation,

Neuroplasticity

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Background and Purpose— Constraint-induced movement therapy is a set of treatments for rehabilitating motor function after central nervous system damage. We assessed the roles of its 2 main components. Methods— A 2×2 factorial components analysis with random assignment was conducted. The 2 factors were type of training and presence/absence of a set of techniques to facilitate transfer of therapeutic gains from the laboratory to the life situation (Transfer Package; TP). Participants (N=40) were outpatients ≥1-year after stroke with hemiparesis. The different treatments, which in each case targeted the more affected arm, lasted 3.5 hours/d for 10 weekdays. Spontaneous use of the more affected arm in daily life and maximum motor capacity of that arm in the laboratory were assessed with the Motor Activity Log and the Wolf Motor Function Test, respectively. Results— Use of the TP, regardless of the type of training received, resulted in Motor Activity Log gains that were 2.4 times as la...

 

 Background and Purpose—Constraint-induced movement therapy is a set of treatments for rehabilitating motor function after central nervous system damage. We assessed the roles of its 2 main components. Methods—A 2×2 factorial components analysis with random assignment was conducted. The 2 factors were type of training and presence/absence of a set of techniques to facilitate transfer of therapeutic gains from the laboratory to the life situation (Transfer Package; TP). Participants (N=40) were outpatients ≥1-year after stroke with hemiparesis. The different treatments, which in each case targeted the more affected arm, lasted 3.5 hours/d for 10 weekdays. Spontaneous use of the more affected arm in daily life and maximum motor capacity of that arm in the laboratory were assessed with the Motor Activity Log and the Wolf Motor Function Test, respectively. Results—Use of the TP, regardless of the type of training received, resulted in Motor Activity Log gains that were 2.4 times as large as the gains in its absence (P<0.01). These clinical results parallel previously reported effects of the TP on neuroplastic change. Both the TP and training by shaping enhanced gains on the Wolf Motor Function Test (P<0.05). The Motor Activity Log gains were retained without loss 1 year after treatment. An additional substudy (N=10) showed that a single component of the TP, weekly telephone contact with participants for 1 month after treatment, doubled Motor Activity Log scores at 6-month follow-up. Conclusions—The TP is a method for enhancing both spontaneous use of a more affected arm after chronic stroke and its maximum motor capacity. Shaping enhances the latter. (Stroke. 2013;44:1383-1388.)