ENHANCED PHYSICAL THERAPY FOR ARM FUNCTION AFTER STROKE - A ONE-YEAR FOLLOW-UP-STUDY

Ninety seven patients with stroke who had participated in a randomised trial of conventional physical therapy v an enhanced therapy for arm function were followed up at one year. Despite the emphasis of the enh anced therapy approach on continued use of the arm in everyday life, t he advantage seen for some patients with enhanced therapy at six month s after stroke had diminished to a non-significant trend by one year. This was due to some late improvement in the conventional therapy grou p whereas the enhanced therapy group remained static or fell back slig htly. It is recommended that trials should be conducted comparing very intensive therapy for the arm with controls without treatment. This w ould provide a model of the effects of therapy on intrinsic neural rec overy that would be relevant to all areas of neurological rehabilitati on.