Previous research on stroke rehabilitation has not established whether increase in physical therapy lead to better intrinsic recovery from hemiplegia. A detailed study was carried out of recovery of arm function after acute stroke, and compares orthodox physiotherapy with an enhanced therapy regime which increased the amount of treatment as well as using behavioural methods to encourage motor learning. In a single-blind randomised trial, 132 consecutive stroke patients were assigned to orthodox or enhanced therapy groups. At six months after stroke the enhanced therapy group showed a small but statistically significant advantage in recovery of strength, range and speed of movement. This effect seemed concentrated amongst those who had a milder initial impairment. More work is needed to discover the reasons for this improved recovery, and whether further development of this therapeutic approach might offer clinically significant gains for some patients.first three months after stroke appeared to lead to better recovery of the range of active movement in the arm and leg. However, the patient groups in this study were

There is a risk that the inappropriate provision of wheelchairs is counter-productive to therapeutic goals. Guidelines for Wheelchair Selection for an Elderly Population were developed to define: a) whether a wheelchair is needed, and if so, whether it is required on a full or part-time basis, and b) which option will best promote the functional independence and comfort of the individual. A multidisciplinary study with a random sample of wheelchair user and non-user subjects established a high degree of reliability, validity and practical utility for these Guidelines for Wheelchair Selection.

This study investigates the validity of actometers as a method of monitoring arm movement in everyday life after stroke. Ten stroke patients with impaired arm function and 10 normal people of similar age wore actometers on each wrist for up to 10 hours on two separate days. The actometers successfully detected reduced average activity of the affected arm after stroke. They also gave higher average readings for the dominant arm of normal subjects when compared to the nondominant side. However, there were suggestions of limits to the validity of the actometers: not every stroke patient or normal subject produced the expected results; test-retest reliability was only moderate; and stroke patients showed only a weak relationship between actometer readings and performance on arm function tests. The low cost and unobtrusiveness of actometers means that despite limitations on their validity, actometers may be a valuable tool in rehabilitation therapy.