ArticlesMental imagery for promoting relearning for people after stroke: A randomized controlled trial1☆,
Section snippets
Methods
Patients meeting the following criteria were recruited to participate in the study: (1) diagnosed as having had a first unilateral cerebral infarction as confirmed by a computed tomography scan, (2) age 60 years or older, (3) independent in performing daily activities before admission, (4) able to communicate effectively, as screened by the Cognistat,19 and (5) having given their voluntary consent. Ethics approval was obtained from the hospital and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University before
Results
A total of 49 patients participated in the clinical trial. Three patients dropped out during the first week of the program: 1 from the mental imagery group and the other 2 from the functional retraining group. They were all readmitted to an acute hospital: 2 because of a second stroke and 1 because of renal failure. All 3 patients had shown good compliance at the time they dropped out. Of the 46 patients who completed the clinical trial, 24 were women and 22 were men. Their FIM instrument mean
Discussion
The results of this study revealed that patients who were trained in the mental imagery technique appeared to reach a higher level of performance than the control group on both the trained and untrained tasks. The higher level of performance on the trained tasks would suggest that mental imagery, when compared with the demonstration-then-practice method, is a more effective strategy for enhancing and retaining relearning among patients who participated in the study. However, the higher level of
Conclusions
Studies on the application of the mental imagery technique to the rehabilitation of patients who have had a stroke have focused on improving isolated abilities or functions, such as upper-limb motor abilities. Our study has demonstrated the positive effects of using the technique to improve patients’ relearning of and performance on more complicated daily tasks. This offers further evidence on the role of active cortical control, which can be mediated by mental imagery to enhance the relearning
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Supported by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
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No party having a direct interest in the results of the research supporting this article has or will confer a benefit on the author(s) or on any organization with which the author(s) is/are associated.