Sharlord Posted December 6, 2008 Share Posted December 6, 2008 Has anyone used this method? My doctor perscribed it for me. My OT didn't really put much faith in it. I found these videos on youtube regarding Constraint Induced Movement Therapy and am re thinking the idea. These might interest some of you. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCA5GVn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lwisman Posted December 6, 2008 Share Posted December 6, 2008 In the August 2008 issue of our newsletter we published three articles on Constraint Therapy. Here is a link the August newsletter online: http://www.strokenet.info/newsletter/2008/august.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharlord Posted December 6, 2008 Author Share Posted December 6, 2008 Thanks, I missed the newsletter. It looks like overall the results are positive. Which is what I am finding in the research Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dreinke Posted December 7, 2008 Share Posted December 7, 2008 If your OT has not heard of this or doesn't think much of CIMT, I would suggest getting a new one who is more up-to-date on new therapies.This has been around for years. Ask your OT what research has shown to be effective in the last 10 years. The answer should tell you if your OT is worth keeping. Dean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharlord Posted December 12, 2008 Author Share Posted December 12, 2008 If your OT has not heard of this or doesn't think much of CIMT, I would suggest getting a new one who is more up-to-date on new therapies.This has been around for years. Ask your OT what research has shown to be effective in the last 10 years. The answer should tell you if your OT is worth keeping. Dean My OT has heard of it. Actually I have spoken to several therapists and haven't received any really positive responces. and have received several reasons for negative attitudes about it. Did you go through a program? If so what did it consist of? What exercises did you do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merichsen Posted December 12, 2008 Share Posted December 12, 2008 You really don't do exercises with it. You wear the mitt for most of the day forcing you to use your affected hand. By not using your affected hand, your brain learns non use of it and dismisses it as part of your body. What CIT does is retrain your brain to recognize it and engage it in use to rewire it. It encouraging you to use it since you have no choice. The trick is not to rip the mitt off. I managed to very effectively use my affectted hand to keep ripping the mitt off so I didn't do too well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dreinke Posted December 13, 2008 Share Posted December 13, 2008 Iam not a candidate for this because I don't have any finger etension or wrist movement. I would do this if I could since there is no downside. Other than CIMT the therapists do not seem to have any therapy that will bring back hand function. And this is done because the area of the brain that controlled the hand still has some control and CIMT strengthens that control. Persons like myself have to move control to another spot in the brain via neuroplasticity before we can even attempt CIMT. I also have heard from others that it is extremely frustrating which is probably where the negative comments about it are coming from. But then everything I do right now is frustrating. merichsen is quite correct about the process. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharlord Posted December 14, 2008 Author Share Posted December 14, 2008 "used my unaffected hand to rip off the mit" One of my friends got pretty good at doing things with the mitt. I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks From the research I have found, there does seem to be some repetitive exercises that the person does while wearing the mitt too. The article on this site has a video with a few exercises on it. On a public television show on brain recovery post stroke, they also showed and mentioned the person does the repetitive exercises. I was wondering if anyone here has actually gone to one of the programs that focus on the technique what they did for the 6 hours a day. In getting ready to participate it helps to assist the healing side with the stronger side as you watch for the small increments of improvement. THANKS everyone for offering your help with this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhand Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 Hi. My stroke was Nov 06, age 51. During the summer of 07 I underwent two weeks of CIMT, 6 hrs/day x 5 days/wk x 2 wks. An *extensive* pre- and post-test indicated significant improvement of upper limb function. Since then, it has been too easy to just use my good hand and ignore the bad one. I live by myself, which has a plus side and a minus side. A spouse would be able to remind me to use the affected hand and arm, and would have made it easier to keep the mitt on, but alone if I want something done I must do it myself. We did lots of repetitive exercises during the two weeks. Over a year later, I use my bad (right) arm, but not hand, to carry clothes to the washer, and to carry a magazine or very light book. I just received a "mirrorbox" in the mail, to do mirror therapy with. Now if I can just find the self-discipline to do two 15-minute sessions a day! (Today I'll take it to OT.) The requirements for CIMT were 10 degrees active wrist extension (I don't recall if that's measured from neutral or from the resting very flexed position -- doggonnit I HATE hypertonia!) and 45 degrees passive external rotation (I did about ten sessions with my OT to achieve that). Someone else in this thread said finger extension is required, but I don't recall. Thumb abduction was definitely *not* required for my CIMT. Good luck! Incidentally, with all that one-on-one time with your PT during the sessions, use the time to ask lots of questions! Knowing more about what happened to you and what's happening to you now makes life a lot more livable. Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bessy Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 at this point il just bout try any thing with the hope the brain clicks and says yesd u can do this or that swith ur left hand and arm tks all 4 the info i will be sure 2 take a look once again ty again i m going 2 go b ack and take a llook at my stroke net n ews letter that i placed in a folder here on y puter that holds my stroke net news letters in BESSY :big_grin: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhand Posted January 24, 2009 Share Posted January 24, 2009 There are mild requirements on functionality of your affected arm. In my case it was some active wrist extension and passive external rotation (upper arm). The only down side of CIMT is that it is really hard and exhausting -- not for everyone! You'll need to find a way to keep your spirits up, because it's frustrating! For instance, at lunch they'd fix me a sandwich and cut it in half, and I could use my good hand to eat the 2nd half after trying to use my bad hand on the first half. I have a tiny bit of wrist extension, but no supination at all, and just a little bit of really slow, jerky elbow flexion (but lots of tone that keeps my arm bent). Besides that, my poor clenched fingers would press right through the bread, pretty much turning the sandwich into goo, at which point I'd bust out my good hand and wolf down the other half of the sandwich! The PTs were all friendly and likable, and I was often the only patient there so they'd let me play my music on the boombox. That helped brighten me up. And my brother worked in the same bldg and would make brief visits, which helped a lot too. The test took about 7 hrs and was really depressing, because you get to witness in detail just how bad your affected arm and hand are. If you can learn to laugh at it, you'll do fine, but that isn't easy. Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharlord Posted January 24, 2009 Author Share Posted January 24, 2009 Thanks Michael for sharing your experience. Do you mind me asking what other kind of things did you do besides eating your sandwhich. My doctor wants me to do it, but like you I live alone so find it hard to use only my healing hand 6-7 hours a day. But I keep thinking ...if I could be better 3 weeks from now shouldn't I bite the bullett so to speak? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhand Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 I think it's important to bear in mind that there are no magic bullets that are gonna miraculously get your hand back in a few weeks. Tests indicated a significant improvement as a result of my CIMT, but in fact it wasn't enough improvement to make much difference, really. I've just learned to get by with one working arm and hand. I know they always say you gotta keep using it and it'll slowly improve, but that is *so* much hassle! The whole 6-hr session each day was spent doing really hard stuff. Using a spoon to move marbles one-by-one from a saucer to another saucer (using my affected hand, of course -- REALLY difficult!) Playing dominos, playing cards, folding clothes, carrying stuff -- all with my impaired hand! You really find out what you can't do! Here are some other helpful tips (I hope). There's a one-hand typing course on dvd, teaching how to type with one hand on an ordinary keyboard (so you don't need a special keyboard and software) -- it's great! Google "one hand typing lilly walters" to find it. Also, because it's my right side that's impaired, I got a great left-foot accelerator for my car. It installed in a snap. (I didn't install it myself, of course. :-) Also the book "One-handed in a Two-handed World" is helpful. If you have time for the CIMT, go for it! You might have better results than me, and no matter the outcome, at least you'll know you tried! (Sometimes I dream that I can walk fine again! I want to dream that I can play guitar again, and ride a motorcycle. Oh well, can't have everything, I guess.) Hey, good luck! M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharlord Posted February 1, 2009 Author Share Posted February 1, 2009 Thanks Mhand for the comments on what you did. I am trying to set up a work station in my house of things to do as part of the CIMT. If you can remember any of the other things you did would you please let me know. If anyone else has any ideas I would appreciate the feedback too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myhome Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 This was early in my therapy...... Everytime I went to therapy they put a velcroed waist band on me. Next they put a padded wristband on my unaffected arm which was secured to the waistband so it couldn't be used ( they had found this way was better as the mitted hand could be used for some things so defeated the purpose). I was in the program for six hours aday, for a two week period. I can say that I got quite abit gross motor function back that I didn't have at that point, and some fine motor skills, didn't think it was a waste of time. I beleive whatever you get back, by whatever means is all good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharlord Posted February 1, 2009 Author Share Posted February 1, 2009 Thanks myhome for your input. Do you have any suggestions as to what kinds of things to do with the healing hand while the other hand is constrained? Did you just go about the day being forced to use the affected hand? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myhome Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 Thanks myhome for your input. Do you have any suggestions as to what kinds of things to do with the healing hand while the other hand is constrained? Did you just go about the day being forced to use the affected hand? Yes, I used the affected hand for everything, I was not allowed to use the unaffected hand at all during the daily rehab. What I found by about day seven was that I could pick up a fork and could actually feed myself with the arm which I had not been able to up to that point. This is just one type of rehab, I had the other OT and physical rehab as well, it all helped me get to where I am today. I never regretted taking the therapy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharlord Posted February 2, 2009 Author Share Posted February 2, 2009 [it all helped me get to where I am today. DO YOU MIND ME ASKING WHERE ARE YOU TODAY WITH YOUR RECOVERY? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myhome Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 DO YOU MIND ME ASKING WHERE ARE YOU TODAY WITH YOUR RECOVERY? I can do most things (tying my shoes was the hardest but I did master it), I of course do this slower than I used to but it gets done. You'll never regret taking the rehab, and if you don't use the arm the brain will start thinking it's not there at all (is what my nero once told me) which scared the hell out of me. He probably did it on purpose to make me work harder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merichsen Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 Yes that's exactly what happens it's called Neglect - The problem, often seen after a stroke, of ignoring the paralyzed side thereby causing the brain to dismiss it as a result of conditioned non use. CIT conditions the brain to recognize and reengage it again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharlord Posted February 17, 2009 Author Share Posted February 17, 2009 Hi Lenny, From the research that I have done it looks like it can be very frustrating but the results are worth it. My doctor is a big fan of the process Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rosejill Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 I was just reading the posts here and I didn't read or see(hect,I probaly overlooked it) if any had tried the CIT therapy whose stroke left their left arm and hand w/no movement whats so ever and w/fingers that have sucj terrible tone they stay curled in all the time,any hope there? I have used my right hand/arm so much in the past 5 yrs. that I am so afraid that sometime in the next 4-5 years I will have done a hect of alot damage to muscles, nerves,etc. I excercise my arm everyday and talk to it w/my brain as I excercise but even there I have to use my good arm&hand to lift the affected arm so........any answers for this type of situation? rosejill I want to say hello to all of the old timers(lol)here, its been quite awhile since I've visted the web site here-just so much going in personal life like mother has been sick and started staying w/me and getting divorced from my husband (we had been together for 30yrs), kidney stones removed, back surgery 2 wks ago, you name it its been going on in my life so the last night I got to wanting to be around others like myself and communicate w/people like myself and maybe give a bit of help which I know can help me so to all you oldies but goodies that remember me as "rosejill" a big hello to you and to all the new ones thats come on board here in the past year or two-a big hello to all of you and if you want to know any intro about me just go the intoduction section-maybe I'm still there...anyway, I'm glad to be hear again-for awhile anyway-just depends on what comes up next in my life.....rosejill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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