Efficacy of Mirror Therapy Containing Functional Tasks in Poststroke Patients

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effect of mirror therapy containing functional tasks on upper extremity function and activities of daily living in patients with subacute stroke. METHODS The subjects were randomly divided into two groups: the mirror therapy group (30 patients) and the sham therapy group (30 patients). The mirror therapy group underwent a mirror therapy program together with conventional therapy for 20 minutes per day on 5 days per week for 4 weeks. The control group received a sham conventional therapy program under the same schedule as the mirror therapy group. The Fugl-Meyer Motor Function Assessment (FMA), Brunnstrom motor recovery stage, and Modified Barthel Index (MBI) were evaluated 4 weeks after the treatment. RESULTS The upper extremity function on the affected side and ability to perform daily life activities after the intervention were significantly improved in both groups. After 4 weeks of intervention, improvements in the FMA (p=0.027) and MBI (p=0.041) were significantly greater in the mirror therapy group than the sham therapy group. CONCLUSION In this study, we found that the mirror therapy containing functional task was effective in terms of improving the upper extremity functions and activities of daily living in patients with subacute stroke.