Brain gym exercises and mirror box therapy in hemispatial neglect post-stroke

Abstract

Background: Hemispatial neglect or unilateral neglect is a failure to report, respond, or orient to stimuli that are presented contralateral to a brain lesion, provided that this failure is not due to elementary sensory or motor disorders. There is a complete lack of awareness of one half of space, at which point, patients behave as if that half of the world does not exist. The estimated prevalence of hemispatial neglect after unilateral stroke is 30%. In this study, the differential treatment using brain gym exercises alone or in combination with Mirror Box therapy for hemispatial neglect post-stroke shall be analysed. Methods: This is a single blinded parallel randomised clinical trial consisting of 2 experimental. 121 participants who met the inclusion criteria were distributed randomly in 3 groups using systematic random sampling. Effect of mirror box therapy for one experimental group and brain gym exercises for second experimental group were calculated after 6 months post treatment. Statistical analysis of outcome measures was done before and after treatment using paired t-test and Anova.Results: 40 patients were randomised to MBT group (n=40), 40 to BGT group (n=40) and 40 to CG (n=40) after excluding the dropouts.