Treatment for Movement Problems in Elderly Stroke Patients

Completed · Phase 2

Conditions studied: Cerebrovascular Disorders

In brief

After a stroke, many patients are left with an impaired arm. Restricting the use of the good arm may improve the use of the bad arm. In "Constraint-Induced Movement" therapy (CI therapy), the good arm is put in a sling to force increased use of the bad arm. The bad arm is also trained each day for several weeks. This study will evaluate the effectiveness of CI therapy in patients with chronic disability after stroke and whether the rate of recovery is decreased in elderly patients.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT00059696

Run by

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

People needed

80

Starts

1999-12-01

Last updated by the study team

2016-09-26

Who can join

Age: 18 and older. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

• First stroke > 12 months prior to study entry
• Impaired Flexor synergy, pronation and supination of forearm, active wrist extension, active finger extension, and active grasp and release
• Minimum passive range of motion and spasticity criteria (defined as stroke patients who fall into approximately the second to lowest quartile of motor functioning as determined by the Fugl-Meyer Test)
• Available for follow-up at the treatment site (3 years for control patients; 2 years for intervention patients)

You may not qualify if…

• Folstein Mini-Mental State Examination score < 24
• Token Test of the Multilingual Aphasia Examination score < 36
• Excessive frailty or lack of stamina (e.g., cannot attend to instructions, stay awake, engage in functional activities) as determined by study officials
• Serious uncontrolled medical conditions
• Excessive pain in any joint of the affected extremity that could limit ability to cooperate with the intervention, as judged by study officials
• Unable to stand independently for 2 minutes, transfer independently to and from the toilet, or perform sit-to-stand
• Current participation in other pharmacological or physical intervention studies
• Injections of anti-spasticity drugs into upper extremity musculature within the past 3 months or wish to have drugs injected in the foreseeable future
• Any oral anti-spasticity drugs at study entry
• Phenol injections within 12 months prior to study entry

Where it is running

• University of Alabama at Birmingham — Birmingham, Alabama, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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