Multimodal Mental Practice Versus Repetitive Task Practice Only to Treat Chronic Stroke: A Randomized Controlled Pilot Study.

IMPORTANCE

Occupational therapists are the primary clinicians tasked with management of the more affected upper extremity (UE) after stroke. However, there is a paucity of efficacious, easy-to-use, inexpensive interventions to increase poststroke UE function.

OBJECTIVE

To compare the effect of a multimodal mental practice (MMMP) regimen with a repetitive task practice (RTP)-only regimen on paretic UE functional limitation.

DESIGN

Secondary analysis of randomized controlled pilot study data.

SETTING

Outpatient clinical rehabilitation laboratory.

PARTICIPANTS

Eighteen chronic stroke survivors exhibiting moderate, stable UE impairment.

INTERVENTION

Participants administered RTP only participated in 45-min, one-on-one occupational therapy sessions 3 times per week for 10 wk; participants administered MMMP completed time-matched UE training sessions consisting of action observation, RTP, and mental practice, delivered in 15-min increments. Outcomes and Measures: The Action Research Arm Test, the UE section of the Fugl-Meyer Scale, and the Hand subscale of the Stroke Impact Scale (Version 3.0) were administered 1 wk before and 1 wk after intervention.

RESULTS

The MMMP group exhibited significantly larger (p < .01) increases on all three outcome measures compared with the RTP group and surpassed minimal clinically important difference standards for all three UE outcome measures.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE

Because of the time-matched duration of MMMP and RTP, findings suggest that MMMP may be just as feasible as RTP to implement in clinical settings. Efforts to replicate results of this study in a large-scale trial are warranted. What This Article Adds: This study shows the efficacy of an easy-to-use protocol that significantly increased affected arm function even years after stroke.