A recent study performed by stroke rehabilitation researchers indicates that using prism adaptation therapy, behavioral classification of patients with spatial neglect can serve as a key tool for assigning targeted, effective early rehabilitation.
A.M. Barrett, MD, one of the study authors, director of Stroke Rehabilitation Research at Kessler Foundation, states that spatial neglect often complicates recovery from right brain stroke, and “Our study suggests we need to know what kind of neglect patients have in order to assign treatment.”
To test this hypothesis, the Kessler Foundation reports in a recent news release that the team classified patients by their spatial neglect profile. The researchers also hypothesized that patients with Aiming (motor-intentional) bias would have better response to prism adaptation recovery than those with isolated Where (perceptional-intentional) bias.
The study encompassed 24 patients with right brain stroke who completed 2 weeks of prism adaptation treatment. Researchers add that the participants also completed the Behavioral Inattention Test and Catherine Bergego Scale (CBS) tests of neglect recovery weekly for 6 weeks. The results suggest that participants with only Aiming deficits improved on the CBS, compared to participants with only Where deficits who did not improve. The release indicates that participants with both types of deficits demonstrated intermediate improvement.
“These findings suggest that patients with spatial neglect and Aiming deficits may benefit the most from early intervention with prism adaptation therapy. More broadly, classifying spatial deficits using modality-specific measures should be an important consideration of any stroke trial intending to obtain the most valid, applicable, and valuable results for recovery after right brain stroke,” Barrett emphasizes in the release.
Source: Kessler Foundation
