Neuroplasticity means you can improve brain function, even years after stroke or brain injury

There’s a rumor going around that you’ve got only one year after you have a stroke or brain injury to make whatever progress and recovery you’re going to make. Stroke and brain injury survivors everywhere will tell you that, from personal experience, that concept is a false rumor. We, too, believe that you can continue to improve with the right therapy – that’s one of the things that drove us to create Constant Therapy!

But don’t just take our word for it – check out this highlight reel of quotes from research papers written by some of the leading minds in the field of brain recovery. The research supports it – with the right therapy, recovery CONTINUES, even years after stroke!

• “… data indicate that early treatment may be maximally beneficial but that later treatment also impacts language ability and use.” Raymer, et al. 2008

Take Home: Yes, the earlier the treatment the better, but later treatment works too!

• “There is a robust evidence-base for stroke rehabilitation interventions in chronic stroke. This research synthesis reveals a paradox, whereby an impressive evidence- base contrasts with the limited optimism and resources available for rehabilitation in chronic stroke.” – Teasell, et al. 2008

Take Home: We have the evidence! Rehabilitation in chronic stages of stroke and brain injury (generally considered 9 months after the event and onward) works!

• “…in the chronic stages, engagement of residual tissue in the infarcted hemisphere is again associated with good overall language recovery. These regions can be perilesional residual tissue, perilesional regions that are anatomically proximal but functionally different regions (e.g., SFG activation following an IFG lesion), or distant regions that are functionally connected to the lesioned region.” – Kiran, 2012

Take Home: Our brains are changing and compensating for injuries due to stroke, even in the chronic stages of recovery!

• “Our results showed that SFA (semantic feature analysis) therapy led to positive results in a group of nine patients who had concomitant neuroplastic changes, even many years after their stroke.” – Marcotte, et al. 2012

Take Home: This therapy continued to work, even for patients who had their strokes years ago – and their brains continued to change with therapy!

• “Neither age or time post-stroke (tp-s) were associated with change in correct naming.” – Fridriksson, et al. 2012

Take Home: Age and the amount of time after a stroke did not make a difference in whether these patients’ ability to name improved or not!

• “…the brain is an organ of plasticity and is directly affected by environmental manipulation.” – Thompson & den Ouden 2008

Take Home: The brain changes and that change comes from environmental manipulation, such as the right therapy!

Sign up with Constant Therapy to become another  survivor proving to the world that there is no deadline for recovery!