Research by a study team including UW–Madison’s Dorothy Farrar Edwards was featured in a recent Daily Mail article that is headlined, “Stroke victims recover best if rehab starts 2-3 MONTHS after the event.”
The study results were released on Monday, Sept. 20, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Farrar Edwards is one of the authors of the study, which found an optimal time for intensive rehabilitation of arm and hand use after a stroke.
Farrar Edwards is the School of Education’s associate dean for research and a member of the Center for Brain Plasticity and Recovery at the Georgetown University Medical Center.
The study found that stroke victims are able to recover most effectively if intensive rehabilitation begins between 2-3 months after the event — though earlier intervention did show some benefit. However, the study found there was no significant benefit to starting extra intensive rehabilitation at six months or more after a stroke.
“The new study suggests there is a ‘critical period’ when adults are most responsive to rehabilitation after stroke,” explained Alexander W. Dromerick, the lead author of the study.
Dromerick died prior to the publication of the PNAS study. He was a professor of rehabilitation medicine and neurology, chair of rehabilitation medicine at the Georgetown University Medical Center, and vice president for research at MedStar National Rehabilitation Hospital.
Farrar Edwards helped to design the study so that participants were able to choose activities they enjoyed or wanted to work on for their intensive rehabilitation.
She told the Daily Mail: “Our approach shows that patients can tolerate much more intensive motor training than is traditionally provided if they are free to choose the activities used in their training.”
“Knowing there might be a critical period for recovery, there are many techniques one might imagine bringing to bear on understanding and enhancing recovery during this time period,” she added.
Another author on the PNAS report is UW–Madison alumna Shashwati Geed, who earned her PhD from the School of Education’s Department of Kinesiology in 2014. Geed is currently an assistant professor with Georgetown University’s Department of Rehabilitation Medicine and a research scientist at MedStar NRH.
The study authors also include Georgetown’s Matthew A. Edwardson, Ming T. Tan, Yizhao Zhou, and Elissa Newport; Kathaleen P. Brady, Margot M. Giannetti, and Abigail Mitchell at MedStar NRH; and Washington University’s Jessica Barth.
To learn more, check out the full article in the Daily Mail.