Preview
Document Type
Undergraduate Research
Creation Date
4-8-2015
Department
Psychology
Abstract
Introduction
A stroke is a debilitating loss of oxygen to the brain. It is one of the leading causes of death in America and can change a person’s life for the worse in just minutes. This horrible happening has many negative effects for those affected, but there are several ways rehabilitate.
Those most often affected by strokes are those with high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart diseases, along with those who smoke or have had brain aneurysms. Age, race, and family history also effect the chances of stroke. Strokes occur more often in those of older age, races such as African American, Alaska Native, and American Indian, and in those who have previously had a stroke or had family history of a stroke. The symptoms of a stroke include face drooping, arm weakness, and speech difficulty.
Strokes affect its victims in the emotional, cognitive and physical realms. Due to experiencing a stroke, people may feel fear, anxiety, frustration, anger, sadness, and a sense of loss. Because this is a brain focused issue, there are many cognitive issues such as aphasia, memory loss, and vascular dementia. The physical consequences are dysphasia, fatigue, foot drop, hemiparesis, incontinence, pain, paralysis, seizures and epilepsy, sleeping problems, spasticity, and vision problems. The focus of this research is on the physical rehabilitation of stroke victims, which include strengthening motor skills, mobility training, constraint-induced therapy, range-of-motion therapy, and the use of several forms of technology-assisted physical activities.
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to gather the rehabilitation methods for post-stroke conditions and to determine the most effective methods of regaining motor functions after a stroke while exploring new possibilities for this field. With this research, there exists the hope that it will further the field of physical rehabilitation for stroke victims.
Materials/Methods
The methods include a literature review of articles from online databases pertaining to the field of physical rehabilitation of strokes. The author will examine the equipment of physical and occupational therapists in alignment with the articles to determine which tools are the most effective for physical rehabilitation. Interview with several physical and occupational therapists will provide additional information for their most preferred and effective tools in helping stroke victims to rehabilitate. The information gained from these methods will be combined in a research paper.
Results/Conclusions
Due to this research still occurring, conclusions cannot be given at this point in time. During the poster presentation, viewers will learn of the conclusions from this study.