Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Fascinating development in stroke therapy

As most survivors know, much of the time, one post-stroke struggle involves one side of the body hampered. In my case, my stroke happened on the left side of my brain, losing movement in the right arm and leg. While those movements came back thanks to some quick-thinking health professionals, this is not always the case.

Now, Reuters Health reported last week, researchers have found some interesting results about how brain stimulation may help some stroke patients:

Treating stroke patients who have lost control and awareness of one side of their body with magnetic stimulation to the brain may improve their symptoms, researchers said today.
In a new, small study published in the journal Neurology, patients who were given quick bursts of stimulation over a couple of weeks improved by about 20 percent on tests of vision and attention, while those who got a fake stimulation treatment didn't improve significantly.
But researchers said it's still unclear what types of patients might benefit from the treatment and by how much.
It might be worth our while to read the whole story. And while this is merely research and not all the answers are in, this has some positive possibilities for improving therapy for stroke patients.

2 comments:

oc1dean said...

The actual document provided an even more fascinating detail;
http://www.springerlink.com/content/427412375113202h/ It was to the good side, the word used was
contralesional motor cortex. and with a 5-45 day window everyone should be able to get it.

Jeff Porter said...

Thanks, Dean!