Arm exercises after a stroke

Early and repetitive stimulation of the affected arm after a stroke can dramatically improve function that persists for many years. Although studies have investigated targeted interventions with one-year of follow-up, the present study is the first to evaluate such interventions on a long-term basis of 5 years.Researchers from the University of Leuven in Belgium, based their study on 100 patients who participated in the exercise programme or received a placebo therapy within two to five weeks of stroke onset. Sixty-two patients were available for functional evaluation five years later. With the exercise programme, patients were placed in a rocking chair for 30 minutes each day and asked to use the affected arm to generate motion. Patients in the comparison group were also placed in a rocking chair, but instead of being instructed to use the arm, they received fake therapy to the shoulder. Both the programmes lasted 6 weeks. At five-year follow-up, patients in the exercise group performed significantly better than the others on two standardized tests of arm function, the researchers found.
Hence, patients with severe movement problems seemed to benefit most from the exercise programme. The researchers said that this therapy causes rewiring of the brain during the acute phase of stroke recovery. Also, there is a need to develop strategies whereby patients can take responsibility for their own therapy and this appears to be a promising one.