Study: After stroke, most patients receive only a small amount of rehabilitation therapy.

A new UCLA-led study found that many stroke victims don't receive enough rehabilitation therapy after a stroke. However, there is strong evidence that higher amounts of rehabilitation therapy can help reduce long-term disability. The UCLA-led stu...

A lot of stroke victims don't receive enough rehabilitation therapy after a stroke. However, there is strong evidence that more rehabilitation therapy can help reduce long-term disability. This is according to a UCLA-led study. It tracked over 500 stroke patients in 28 acute care hospitals during the first year after a stroke.

The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Stroke is the first to show that stroke victims who suffered more severe strokes received more rehabilitation therapy. This is a welcome finding. Steven Cramer MD, the study's principal author, said that the findings "reaffirm the fact that too many patients are missing out upon a golden opportunity for maximum recovery during a critical time following a stroke." Stroke is the leading cause of long-term disability and can cause speech, memory and mobility impairments.

The brain needs to undergo maximum rewiring in the first weeks following a stroke. This recovery is maximized by rehab therapy. Higher rehab therapy doses are more effective, but we found that most patients receive very small doses of rehabilitation therapy.

Many stroke victims not treated in this study didn't receive rehabilitation therapy. About one-third of patients did not receive physical therapy after three months. Nearly half did not receive occupational therapy and 6 out 10 patients did not receive speech therapy.

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