The Effect of Mirror Therapy on Upper Extremity Motor Function and Motor Recovery in Stroke Patients

To evaluate the effectiveness of mirror therapy on improvement of motor functions of the upper extremity in patients with stroke. Fifty-three stroke patients were included this study. Patients were assigned to either an mirror therapy group (n=30) or a control group (n=20). All patients were enrolled in a conventional rehabilitation program for 4 weeks, 60 minutes, and 5 days a week. Patients in the study group received additional 30 minutes of mirror therapy for five days a week for four weeks. Patients were evaluated at the beginning of the rehabilitation program (pre-treatment), at the end of the 4th week (after the treatment) and 12 weeks (follow-up). Brunnstrom recovery stage of arm and hand, Functional Independence Measure (FIM) and Modified Ashworht Scale (MAS) were used to evaluate the patient’s upper extremity motor recovery, function and spasticity. After one month of treatment and follow-up evaluation patients of both groups showed statistically significant improvement in all the variables except spasticity (all for p<0.001). No significant differences in Brunnstrom stage, FIM were found between groups (Respectively s？ras？yla p=0.607, p=0.790, p=0.146, p=0.123). There was no statistically significant change in wrist flexor spasticity in both the study group and the control group after treatment (p = 0.240). There was no statistically significant difference in the spasticity of the wrist flexor muscles were found between groups (p = 0.731). In our study, the superiority of mirror therapy to conventional therapy was not determined. There is still a need for well-planned studies to standardize mirror therapy so that it can be used more effectively in stroke rehabilitation in the future