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EVIDENCE BEHIND STROKE REHABILITATION

Stroke Therapy Evaluation Programme (STEP), Section of Clinical Gerontology and Vascular Medicine, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Peter Langhorne
Professor of Stroke Care, Stroke Therapy Evaluation Programme (STEP), Academic Section of Geriatric Medicine, Level 3, Centre Block, Royal Infirmary, Glasgow G4 OSF, UK; pl11m@clinmed.gla.ac.uk

Keywords: stroke rehabilitation

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Stroke is a common and serious condition for which there is no routinely available curative treatment. Because of the high burden of disability and the lack of a widely applicable medical treatment, much of post-stroke care relies upon rehabilitation interventions. This article will discuss the evidence behind stroke rehabilitation interventions. but before doing so we need to define some terminology. Rehabilitation has a rather non-specific definition: "a problem solving process aiming at reducing the disability and handicap resulting from a disease". In this article we will use a broad definition of rehabilitation, which includes any general aspect of stroke care (generally non-surgical, non-pharmaceutical interventions) that aims to reduce disability and handicap (that is, promote activity and participation). This definition avoids an artificial splitting of early (often termed "acute") and later ("rehabilitation") care; rehabilitation interventions are relevant from the onset of symptoms. The main focus will be on evidence about treatments . . . [Full text of this article]

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