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Mirror Therapy Research Paper

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LOWER EXTREMITY MIRROR THEARPY IN STROKE PATIENTS WITH NEGLECT
Alli McCarthy
PT 640 Research Proposal
Spring Semester 2015

Research Question: Can mirror therapy performed on the upper and lower extremity of stroke patients improve unilateral visual neglect more than mirror therapy exclusively performed on the upper extremity?

Abstract
Background and Purpose. Stroke patients with visual neglect can be treated with mirror therapy to improve neglect and function. Previous studies have shown improvement of neglect and function in stroke patients who are given mirror therapy on the upper extremity only. This research will exam whether mirror therapy of both the upper and lower extremity can show greater improvement than if mirror therapy is performed …show more content…

Physical therapists working at these large hospitals throughout the Midwest where recruitment will occur will be formally trained how on how to perform MT so that therapists will be consistent within and between patients. Both groups will receive 1 hour of MT of the upper extremity 5 days a week for 4 weeks. In addition to this treatment, the physical therapist will also work with patients in both groups on limb activation for 1 hour 5 days a week for 4 weeks and provide the more traditional physical therapy given to stroke patients, such as doing exercises to improve strength in the upper and lower extremity on the affected side involving neuromuscular re-education, pre-walking functional activities, weight shifts in sitting or standing, or the maintenance of unassisted …show more content…

A pilot study will be performed since no current research looking at the effect of mirror therapy performed on stroke patients with neglect with primary outcome measures of SCT and LBT have provided exact values of means with standard deviations between the groups. An effect size of .50 will be used based on the study performed by Pandian et al. which looked at the effect of mirror therapy performed on stroke patients with neglect and used similar primary outcome measures as this study (Pandian) Therefore, with an effect size of .5, a sample size of 64 participants in each group will be needed. However, it is necessary to account for a predicted attrition rate when recruiting participants. Based on the 12% attrition rate seen in the study performed by Pandian et al., this study will start with an additional 8 participants per group with the hope of maintaining 80% power and reducing the risk of a type II error. (Pandian) Therefore, this study will begin with 72 participants in each group. An intention-to-treat analysis will be performed in order to account for subjects who drop out of the study. A Bonferroni adjustment will be made in order to maintain an overall α2 = 0.05 to protect against type 1

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