Physiotherapy research international : the journal for researchers and clinicians in physical therapy
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Characterizing the protocol for early modified constraint-induced movement therapy in the EXPLICIT-stroke trial.
Constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) is a commonly used rehabilitation intervention to improve upper limb function after stroke. CIMT was originally developed for patients with a chronic upper limb paresis. Although there are indications that exercise interventions should start as early as possible after stroke, only a few randomized controlled trials have been published on either CIMT or modified forms of CIMT (mCIMT) during the acute phase after stroke. ⋯ The intervention starts within 2 weeks after stroke onset. The protocol retains two of the three key elements of the original CIMT protocol, that is, repetitive training and the constraining element. Repetitive task training is applied for 1 hour per working day, and the patients wear a mitt for at least 3 hours per day for three consecutive weeks.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Effectiveness of a home exercise programme in low back pain: a randomized five-year follow-up study.
Therapeutic exercise has been shown to be beneficial in decreasing pain and in increasing functioning in patients with chronic low back pain. However, longitudinal follow-up studies are small in number, and often limited in the numbers of subjects due to drop-outs. In addition there is a shortage of real control groups in most cases. The purpose of the present study was to describe long-term changes in intensity of low back pain and in functioning for two study groups five years after undertaking a home exercise programme. ⋯ The present randomized study indicates that supervised, controlled home exercises lead to reduced low back pain, and that positive effects were preserved over five years.