Guitar lessons can aid stroke recovery – UP

 This is massive cherry picking, if you have spasticity at all this would never work. First you have to cure spasticity. 

Guitar lessons can aid stroke recovery – UP

MANILA, Philippines — A University of the Philippines (UP) study has found that a guitar-based rehabilitation program can improve hand function in chronic stroke patients at levels comparable to traditional occupational therapy.

Designed to evaluate how guitar instruction stacks up against conventional therapy, the randomized controlled trial enrolled 34 chronic stroke patients with unilateral hand impairment.

Participants were assigned either to a guitar-lesson intervention group or to a control group undergoing standard occupational therapy.

Each patient completed eight one-hour sessions over four weeks, conducted in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine’s treatment rooms at Philippine General Hospital (PGH).

Researchers assessed hand function before and after treatment using measurements of range of motion, grip and pinch strength and standardized tests.

According to the authors, comparison of passive and active ROM changes “showed no statistically significant difference” between the control and intervention groups.

The study further noted that functional improvements in the impaired hand were likewise statistically similar, “except for an observed greater improvement with the control group in motor coordination.”

Despite this, the researchers emphasized that overall therapeutic gains were comparable, stating that the results indicate “improvement in hand function using the guitar lesson was comparable to that from traditional occupational therapy.”

'I learned to play guitar with one arm after a stroke'

 Why? Because your doctor and therapists were complete fucking failures at getting you recovered?

'I learned to play guitar with one arm after a stroke'

1 day ago

Jonathan Geddes

BBC Scotland News

Tony Romaine

Tony Romaine spent seven months in hospital recovering from his stroke

An Inverness man has been able to resume his music career despite suffering a stroke that left him unable to speak or walk - by teaching himself to play the guitar one-handed.

Tony Romaine spent seven months in hospital recovering from a stroke that hit him "out of the blue" two years ago.

The 49-year-old dad of four was found by his wife Lynn lying on their couch unable to move or even cry for help after a clot caused the blood supply to his brain to be interrupted.

However, earlier this year he took to the stage to play his first gig since the incident, with plans for further shows in 2025.

"I couldn't imagine not doing music in my life," says Tony, who was initially unable to even swallow after the stroke happened.

"When people said I probably wouldn't be able to play again, I wasn't going to listen to that. There was probably a part of me that was like 'I'll prove you wrong' but I just had to get back to playing again."

Tony Romaine

Tony had to relearn how to walk, talk and eat after his stroke

A music lover from childhood, Tony regularly played gigs around Inverness. In 2022 he forced himself to play a couple of shows despite feeling unwell - not realising that within days doctors would be telling his family to prepare for the worst.

"The day after the gig I had a rest day, so I was sitting on the couch and ordering a takeaway.

"By the time the takeaway got there, I was finding it difficult to move around but I just thought I was tired and under the weather. I never thought it would be anything like a stroke.

"By the time everyone was going to bed I was saying I would just stay there a bit longer, and I lay down. Next thing I knew, I couldn't move at all. I went to shout out, and realised I couldn't speak either.

"I was lying there all night, wide awake and thinking 'what the hell is going on?'."

'I might not be here tomorrow'

Tony's wife Lynn came downstairs early the next morning and discovered her husband, quickly phoning for an ambulance.

However, doctors said they could not do anything to break up the clot to his brain stem that caused the stroke.

"My family were told the day I went in that I might not be here tomorrow. I was having trouble breathing and had tubes going in and out of me."

The stroke was so severe that Tony had to be fed through tubes for several weeks while being cared for at at Inverness's Raigmore Hospital, firstly in the ICU and then the stroke unit.

Tony Romaine

Tony never lost hope that he would be able to make music again

He then moved to the RNI Community Hospital, for a further five months of rehab and physio.

Although the initial targets were focused simply on helping Tony to walk again, he was already thinking about how to play guitar.

"The first thing the physiotherapist said to me was that she just wanted me to sit up. I said to them 'I don't know how to do that', so she helped me, and eventually I managed to sit at the edge of the bed," he says.

"That was the start. But to be honest, I was thinking about music from the first day I was in hospital.

"There was so much stuff going through my head at that point but I was thinking that I'd have to cancel gigs and I was trying to figure out how I was going to do it."

Progress was slow at times, and Tony recalls being told how his brain needed to be "taught" that his leg was still there and could work.

As he continued to make progress with his body, he was able to start trying to play guitar again as well, even though his left hand and arm were out of action.

"I had no idea how I was going to do it," he recalls.

"It's not like I could just go to a guitar teacher, but once I figured out a couple of techniques it became a case of practicing them, which was easier."

The first song he re-learned was Eleanor Rigby by the Beatles, with a stripped-back arrangement to make it easier on him.

He could find inspiration in the likes of Edywn Collins, the former Orange Juice singer who suffered a stroke following a cerebral haemorrhage in 2005 but later returned to performing and making music.

Soon Tony was not just re-learning old songs but working on new material too, and in August the song Standing Stone was released on streaming services.

Another milestone came the same month when he played a gig for the first time in two years, taking the stage at the Rose Street Foundry in Inverness for 30 minutes.

"I was absolutely exhausted," he recalls.

"I stood out of my wheelchair at the end and my legs were shaking. But I'm growing in stamina all the time – I'm hoping to do an hour and a half, maybe split in two 45 minute sets, for my next gigs."

Charity support

Those upcoming gigs will be aimed at helping others, too.

He is hoping fundraise for Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland in the coming months, after they helped him with his rehab after the stroke, while his next show at the Tooth and Claw in Inverness will be to benefit the Oxygen Works charity in the city.

"When I was in hospital I saw people who had given up, and that made me really sad," he explains.

"I understand it, it's a terrible thing to go through but I wouldn't want anyone to give up - I want people to know that you can come through this."  

Guitar lessons seen to improve hand mobility in stroke patients — study

These patients would have to be complete outliers. My finger spasticity would need to be cured first. I see this as being almost totally useless for normal stroke patients.

Guitar lessons seen to improve hand mobility in stroke patients — study

January 25, 2023 | 12:05 am

UNSPLASH

By Patricia B. Mirasol, Reporter 

GUITAR exercises can help rehabilitate hand function among stroke patients with unilateral hand impairment, according to a study. 

Project G.T.A.R.A., or “Grip/Grasp Training with Active Range of Motion Activities using Guitar,” is a set of guitar exercises similar to those used in traditional occupational therapy sessions for patients with one impaired hand and one normally functioning hand.  

The P3-million project, which ended December 2022, was funded by the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (DoST-PCHRD) and developed by the University of the Philippines Diliman-College of Music (UPCMu).  

Evaluation of the project results is ongoing.  

“This partnership with UPCMu aims to capitalize on the benefits of leveraging music therapy as a rehabilitation strategy for patients,” said Dr. Jaime C. Montoya, DoST-PCHRD executive director, in a Jan. 20 statement.  

“If successful, this project can contribute to the recovery of our stroke patients with hand impairments, and enable them to perform their tasks normally,” he added.  

The eight-week treatment session culminated in a guitar presentation on Dec. 17 featuring seven of the 17 study participants at the UPCMu’s Mini Hall. The performances, according to the DoST-PCHRD, demonstrated the benefits of utilizing the guitar methods curated by the project team for chronic stroke patients. 

The idea behind G.T.A.R.A. was born in a UPCMu class in 2017 led by Professor Nathan V. Manimtim and a conversation on Classical Guitar Pedagogy – A Handbook for Teachers, a book written by classical guitarist and composer Anthony Glise.   

Daniel Joseph S. Morabe, a UPCMu alumnus and G.T.A.R.A. project team member, said that the Glise book is unique because it discusses the effect of the different guitar playing techniques on the body and health of the guitarist.   

After observing patients in the occupational therapy ward of the Philippine General Hospital, Mr. Morabe saw the rehabilitative potential of guitar exercises. 

Mr. Manimtim, Mr. Morabe’s former professor and G.T.A.R.A. project leader, explained in a Jan. 23 e-mail: “To test whether these similarities [between therapy sessions and classical guitar techniques] were merely superficial or have a deeper connection, Dr. Kreza G. Ligaya — who was a resident physician of Rehabilitation Medicine at that time — invited a stroke patient with right-hand deficiency to participate in a pilot study on the use of specially designed guitar-playing exercises by Mr. Morabe and myself.”  

The improvement seen on this stroke patient’s quality of movement prompted the project proponents to form a team of doctors and musicians to conduct a more comprehensive study.

LSU students help rehabilitate stroke victims with adaptive guitar

I can't tell from this if this is compensation and just one-handed playing or actual recovery working on the affected hand. 

LSU students help rehabilitate stroke victims with adaptive guitar

Stroke victims now have a creative option for their rehabilitation, thanks to a team of University students who have built an adaptive guitar specializing in restoring motor function.
The guitar, which is the second of its kind, was originally the brainchild of Assistant Professor of Kinesiology, Nikita Kuznetsov.
“I have a friend who had a stroke and he was a musician,” Kuznetsov said. “He basically couldn’t play anymore, and he had played the guitar. I thought this might be one way to help him.”
Kuznetsov said his friend tried to develop a similar device, but couldn’t get it to work. Whenever Kuznetsov started his faculty position at the University, he saw it as the perfect opportunity to continue his friend’s work.                                                         
Kuznetsov enlisted a diverse team ranging from undergraduate freshmen to alumni to work on the project. Kinesiology graduate student Marcelline Dechenaud immediately jumped on board, since it was a unique opportunity to combine her academic interest in kinesiology with her musical hobby.
“I’m a musician,” Dechenaud said. “When I heard about the project, I thought that would be a very cool thing for me to be involved in.”
Dechenaud plays the cello but finds it difficult to devote time to music amidst her academic pursuits.
“I wouldn’t do it professionally, since I don’t have enough time, but I try to practice as much as I can,” Dechenaud said.
Kinesiology freshman Sarah Cherry was excited to have been included in such a meaningful project during her first year at the University.
“This is my first experience with research at a university setting,” Cherry said. “It’s such a great opportunity for me to be involved in during my freshman year of college.”
Each year in the U.S., an estimated 795,000 people suffer from a stroke. Despite popular misconception, it is not a rare condition that only affects the elderly. It is extremely common, and can happen to anyone at anytime.Recovering from a stroke can also be a lifelong process.
“I think this is something that I think a lot of people can understand and relate to,” Cherry said. “It’s easy for me to get excited about, because it has such an awesome impact on people.”
Although the adaptive guitar has only been tested on University student volunteers, the University will soon bring the device to Baton Rouge General Hospital. Kuznetsov is currently working on a grant to expand funding for the project.
“This project involves a lot of people, so it’s a great motivator,” Kuznetsov said. “We’re all in this together.”
The project is still seeking volunteers and welcomes anyone who wants to experiment with playing their adaptive guitar. Kuznetsov compared the experience to the popular music game Guitar Hero, although the technique involved is significantly more difficult. Students should not get discouraged if they initially find playing the instrument challenging, especially since they are instructed to play with their non-dominant hand.
“Some students get very frustrated the first day,” Cherry said. “It moves very quickly, so they get overwhelmed at first.”
The adaptive guitar has the added benefit of being like a starter guitar for students who are not musical. Although it can be difficult at first, most of the test subjects got the hang of it quickly.
“After the first few days, it was so easy, they weren’t concentrating anymore, and so then that’s the reason they would mess up,” Dechenaud said.
The benefits of the adaptive guitar not only apply to stroke victims or those seeking to learn how to play an instrument on a basic level. Seasoned musicians might be fascinated by the guitar’s capability to play chords that are impossible on a standard acoustic due to the complex hand placement.
LSU alumnus James Kirsch, who graduated with his bachelor’s in engineering but still remains closely involved with the project, said the project had its fair share of doubters. The idea has been attempted multiple times before, but this version is by far the most complicated and the most successful.
“No one else expected it to work,” Kirsch said. “They thought it was too complicated. When we finally presented it, one of the guys who said there was no way it was going to work said, ‘I don’t understand how you did this.’ He called it black magic.”
Despite the skeptics, Kirsch said the team always remained confident. It took a lot of long nights, but they eventually accomplished their goals.
“A few days before, I realized it wasn’t physically possible to put it together, so I had to make a lot of last minute modifications,” Kirsch said.
Although Kirsch emphasized the stress the team was under in the last few days before the presentation, he mentioned his respect for Kuznetsov as an inspiration.
“Nikita’s great,” Kirsch said. “Making him happy was worth it.”
Although the difficult part of developing the device is over, Kuznetsov said that his project has a higher ultimate goal of becoming a commonplace rehabilitation method.
“I want to do something that helps with the quality of life in the community,” Kuznetsov said. “Down the line, this could be used for people with Parkinson’s, children with autism or aging adults. It could really be helpful in a variety of situations.”

Picture at link.