NCT03854487

Effect of Mirror Therapy on Unilateral Neglect for Patients After Stroke

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 21 (actual)
• Sponsor: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

This is a single-blinded randomized controlled trial to investigate the effects of mirror therapy (MT), with reference to sham mirror (a glass wall) and control (a covered mirror), in reducing unilateral neglect for patients with stroke in 2 centres.

Detailed description

Twenty-one subacute inpatients with left unilateral neglect after right-hemispheric stroke, recruited from 2 hospitals - Hong Kong and Guangzhou, in 1 and a half years, were randomly assigned to three groups; mirror therapy, sham therapy (in the form of a transparent glass wall), and control (covered mirror). The treatment programme for all groups consisted of 12 sessions (4 per week for 3 weeks) movement practice for the hemiplegic arm involved 5 table-top tasks graded according to the severity of patients' arm impairments. Blinded assessments were administered at baseline, 3-week postintervention, and 3-week follow-up upon completion of training.

Conditions

• The Effects of Mirror Therapy on Patients With Unilateral Neglect After Stroke

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Mirror therapy	A mirror is placed at the midsagittal plane of the patient. The patients in the mirror therapy group watched the mirror illusion of the non-affected arm in the mirror and moved together with the affected arm. The treatment programme for all groups consisted of 12 sessions (4 per week for 3 weeks), each lasting for 30 minutes. The movement practice involved 5 table-top tasks and the patient was instructed to perform as many trials as possible in each session with a maximum of 30 trials per task, giving a total of 150 trials per session. Treatment activities are graded according to the severity of the patient's upper extremity impairment.
BEHAVIORAL	Sham mirror	A transparent glass wall is placed at the midsagittal plane of the patient. The patients in the sham mirror group watched the movements of the affected arm through the transparent glass wall and moved together with the non-affected arm. The treatment programme for all groups consisted of 12 sessions (4 per week for 3 weeks), each lasting for 30 minutes. The movement practice involved 5 table-top tasks and the patient was instructed to perform as many trials as possible in each session with a maximum of 30 trials per task, giving a total of 150 trials per session. Treatment activities are graded according to the severity of the patient's upper extremity impairment.
BEHAVIORAL	Covered mirror	A covered mirror is placed at the midsagittal plane of the patient. The patients in the control group watched the movements of the non-affected arm and moved together with the affected arm behind the covered mirror. The treatment programme for all groups consisted of 12 sessions (4 per week for 3 weeks), each lasting for 30 minutes. The movement practice involved 5 table-top tasks and the patient was instructed to perform as many trials as possible in each session with a maximum of 30 trials per task, giving a total of 150 trials per session. Treatment activities are graded according to the severity of the patient's upper extremity impairment.

Timeline

• Start date: 2016-07-01
• Primary completion: 2017-09-30
• Completion: 2018-06-30
• First posted: 2019-02-26
• Last updated: 2019-02-26