Stroke rehabilitation: a reconsideration of some common attitudes.

Some common, yet erroneous, attitudes and perceptions about stroke still persist. These warrant reconsideration: (1) benefits of stroke rehabilitation (including validity of its basis, life expectancy, adequacy in nursing homes, outcome prediction, cost benefits, and vocational outcome); (2) gait training (including evaluation methods, gait patterns, hand supports, sensory deficits, and types of braces); (3) effects of training on regaining balance; (4) spasticity (as a negative factor, enhancement by spring-action brace, benefit of inhibition training, and importance of antispasmotic drugs); (5) danger of early activity; (6) depression; (7) effects on patients' sexuality; (8) effects of communication impairments on learning abilities as well as effectiveness of speech therapy; (9) application of neurphysiological principles (regarding decreasing synaptic resistance, applications of principles from cerebral palsy training, and benefits of training for percept-concept-motor function deficits); and (10) research including reliability of past reports and paucity of facilities for new research.