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| PROJECT NAME: |
Improving Motor
Performance Applying Constraint Therapy (I.M.P.A.C.T.) |
| TIMELINE: |
2006-2010 |
| FUNDING SOURCE: |
National
Institutes of Health |
PRINCIPAL
INVESTIGATOR: |
Kathye E. Light, PhD, PT |
| CO-INVESTIGATORS: |
Stacy Fritz, PhD,
PT (PI at USC), Matthew P. Malcolm, Phd, OT (PI at Colorado
State University) |
| PROJECT
WEBSITE: |
http://impact.phhp.ufl.edu/ |
PROJECT
OVERVIEW/
ABSTRACT: |
The Stroke I.M.P.A.C.T. Study explores Constraint Induced
Therapy (CIT) for stroke rehabilitation. I.M.P.A.C.T. (which
stands for Improving Motor Function Applying Constraint
Therapy) is a five year multi–site NIH research grant.
Participants with upper-extremity (arm and hand) effects of
stroke, receive two weeks of intense rehabilitation in
research facilities at the University of Florida in
Gainesville, Colorado State University in Fort Collins and
the University of South Carolina in Columbia.
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| PARTICIPATING
IN THE STUDY: |
Primary Criteria:
- Greater than 9 months since stroke
- Active wrist extension of at least 10º from a
fully-flexed position
- Plus 10º of active extension of at least two
fingers and thumb
- Repeat this extension at least three times in a
1-minute period.
- 40 years of age or older
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| ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: |
|
 Evidence from the labs of Taub et al. and Wolf et al.
supports a therapy for post-stroke hemiparesis known as
Constraint-Induced Therapy (CIT). CIT has received a great
deal of attention among rehabilitation specialists and the
general public, but certainly, we are in the early stages of
understanding the CIT intervention and its effects. An
important question concerns the level of task supervision
necessary to ensure the effort and practice intensity
required to achieve beneficial results. Taub insists that 6
hours of training a day for a 2-week period with direct
supervision and constant training is necessary. This type of
therapy is expensive and not currently realistic in today’s
healthcare arena. Would a less expensive program employing 1
hour/day of direct training followed by 5 hours of
structured home exercises and daily telephone supervision be
equally effective? Finally, we plan to test the benefits of
follow-up CIT booster therapy. Although individuals improve
with CIT, and appear to maintain much of their improvement
long-term, we do not know if these individuals have
maximized the benefits of CIT training.
Specific Aim 1: To determine if CIT results in better
outcomes when the training and practice occur onsite with
the trainers as opposed to brief onsite training followed by
home practice with telephone supervision during the days of
training.
Specific Aim 2: To determine if the delivery of a second
booster therapy of CIT results in further significant gains
in the outcome measures of CIT.
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