STROKE MENTAL PRACTICE
For years, athletes have used mental practice to help them perform on the field. Now, one researcher is conducting a study to see if it also helps stroke patients recover the use of their affected limbs - even years after a stroke happens.
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It takes a lot to keep Bill Harrison away from golf. But two years ago, a stroke did exactly that.
Bill Harrison
Had a stroke
"I went to bed Sunday night, very healthy. Never had a health problem in my life. Woke up Monday morning, and I had a problem."
Bill now only has about 10 percent usage of his left arm. Even turning pages in a book is difficult.
University of Cincinnati researcher Stephen Page is studying whether performing mental exercises can help stroke patients recover better.
Stephen Page, PhD
Scientist
Drake Rehab Center/University of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, OH
"When someone imagines themselves doing a physical movement such as throwing a ball or picking up a cup, the muscles fire as if you're actually doing the activity."
Patients listen to a CD and mentally practice the same activities they perform in physical therapy. Again and again.
Stephen Page, OhD
"It doesn't happen through half an hour of practice. It happens through repeated daily practice over and over and over again."
Page's research shows just thinking about an activity causes parts of the brain to activate. In his study, patients who performed the mental exercises saw about a 30-percent improvement in movement - even those who had a stroke up to 13 years earlier.
Stephen Page, PhD
"Most of them start out with just a little bit of movement in their wrist. And, by the end of the study, they're able to do this, they're able to grab and they're able to release things, which is a big deal."
And, if it helps Bill hold a golf club again, he says it's a really big deal.
Patients are in the study for 6 to 10 weeks and can also perform the mental exercises at home. Page says one of the key findings in his research is that changes in brain activity can still happen many years after a stroke occurs. The current study is being funded by the National Institute of Health.
STROKE: Every 45 seconds, someone in America has a stroke. Every 3.1 minutes, someone dies of one. Stroke killed an estimated 167,661 people in 2000 and is the nation's third leading cause of death, ranking behind diseases of the heart and all forms of cancer. Stroke is a leading cause of serious, long-term disability in the United States. Stroke is a type of cardiovascular disease. It affects the arteries leading to and within the brain. A stroke occurs when a clot bursts or blocks a blood vessel that carries oxygen and nutrients to the brain. When that happens, part of the brain cannot get the blood and oxygen it needs, so it starts to die. When part of the brain dies from lack of blood flow, the part of the body it controls is affected. Strokes can cause paralysis, affect language and vision, and cause other problems.
EFFECTS: The brain is an extremely complex organ that controls various body functions. If a stroke occurs and blood flow can't reach the region that controls a particular body function, that part of the body won't work as it should. If the stroke occurs toward the back of the brain, for instance, it's likely that some disability involving vision will result. The effects of a stroke depend primarily on the location of the obstruction and the extent of brain tissue affected.
TREATMENTS: Generally, there are three treatment stages for stroke: prevention, therapy immediately after the stroke, and post-stroke rehabilitation to help patients try to regain some use of numbed limbs. Therapies to prevent a first or recurrent stroke are based on treating an individual's underlying risk factors for stroke, such as hypertension, atrial fibrillation, and diabetes. Acute stroke therapies try to stop a stroke while it is happening by quickly dissolving the blood clot causing an ischemic stroke or by stopping the bleeding of a hemorrhagic stroke. Post-stroke rehabilitation helps individuals overcome disabilities that result from stroke damage. Medication or drug therapy is the most common treatment for stroke. The most popular classes of drugs used to prevent or treat stroke are antithrombotics (antiplatelet agents and anticoagulants) and thrombolytics.
NEW HOPE: A new therapy is giving stroke patients who have lost the use of hands or arms new hope. Research has shown that mental practice, or thinking about performing physical movements, activates the same muscles in the body as actual practice of the same task. Using neuroimaging, studies have shown that the same areas of the brain that become active through a certain physical activity can also become active through mental practice of that same activity. "If we can give patients exercises that are easily altered for home practice, they will be much more likely to continue therapy on their own and have success," Stephen Page, PhD, director of research and assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati, says. "Because mental practice can produce such powerful reactions in the body and the brain, we think stroke patients can benefit substantially from this exercise."
Dama Kimmon
Public Relations and Communications
University of Cincinnati Medical Center
165 Health Professions Building
3223 Eden Avenue & Albert Sabin Way
Cincinnati, OH, 45267-0550
(513) 558-4519
Dama.kimmon@uc.edu
www.rehablab.org
Copyright © 2006 Ivanhoe Broadcast News, Inc.
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