CONSTRAINT-INDUCED MOVEMENT THERAPY - A NEW APPROACH TO TREATMENT IN PHYSICAL REHABILITATION

Constraint-induced (CI) Movement Therapy is a new approach to the reha bilitation of movement, based on research in neuroscience and behavior al psychology, that has been shown in controlled experiments to greatl y increase the amount of use of an impaired upper extremity in chronic stroke patients in both the laboratory and the real world. CI Therapy consists of a family of techniques that induce stroke patients to gre atly increase their use of an affected upper extremity for many hours a day over 10 to 14 consecutive days. The signature technique involves restricting the contralateral arm in a sling and training the affecte d arm. This commentary reviews the animal and human research and the t heoretical formulation on which CI Therapy is based.