Brunnstrom Movement Therapy

Brunnstrom Movement Therapy Stroke is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States and a leading cause of adult disability. (STROKEASSOCIATION.ORG). The suffering does not end after the accident, those survived stroke have to face the debilitating physical and even psychological effects of this disease. Prior to the works of physiotherapists in the past, people with hemiplegia neglected the affected arm. Needless to say, this arm became essentially useless. In 1970, Signe Brunnstrom, Swedish a physical therapist, published Movement Therapy in Hemiplegia. She was particularly concerned with remediation and understanding motor behavior following stroke. She was influenced by works of Magnus, a Dutch scientist, on reflex responses found in decerebration in cats. Magnus stressed that the central nervous system is continuously influenced by impulses from the periphery, and that these impulses work together or compete with each other to facilitate to inhibit motor responses. (BRUNNSTROM). Brunnstrom’s stages of recovery, like normal motor development, follows a definite pattern. Thus, the goal of her therapy is to take the patient at his presenting level of function and with reflex training, allow him to progress from subcortical to cortical control of muscle function. In people with hemiplegia, the influence of higher centers is temporarily or permanently interfered with, normal reflexes become exaggerated and pathological reflexes appear. In a normally developing