EFFECTIVENESS OF MIRROR THERAPY ON IMPROVEMENT OF MOTOR FUNCTIONS OF AFFECTED UPPER LIMB AMONG STROKE PATIENTS.

INTRODUCTION: Stroke, sometimes called a brain attack, occurs when a clot blocks the blood supply to the brain or when a blood vessel in the brain bursts. Stroke can be caused by either too little blood to the brain, a ischemic stroke, or too much blood in the skull, a hemorrhagic stroke. Mirror therapy is a relatively new approach in rehabilitation used in different neurological disorders including stroke. AIM: The study is intended to assess the effectiveness of mirror therapy on improvement of motor functions of affected upper limb among stroke patients admitted in GGSMC&H, Faridkot, Punjab. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Quantitative research approach with quasi-experimental research design was used. Non-probability purposive sampling technique was used to select 60 stroke patients with upper limb motor impairment. The socio-demographic profile, clinical variable performa and standardized tool, FMA-UE scale was used to assess the effectiveness of mirror therapy on improvement of motor functions of affected upper limb among stroke patients. Analysis was done by using descriptive and inferential statistics. RESULTS: The results revealed that during pre-interventional assessment, 60% of study participants had marked upper limb motor impairment, 30% of study participants had moderate upper limb motor impairment, followed by 10% had severe upper limb motor impairment in experimental group. After the intervention during the post-interventional assessment, 63.3% of study participants had moderate upper limb motor impairment. In conventional group during pre-interventional assessment, 53.5% of study participants had marked upper limb motor impairment, 30% of study participants had moderate upper limb motor impairment and almost the same percentage i.e. 43.3% of study participants had marked upper limb motor impairment during post-interventional assessment. The difference between pre-interventional mean upper limb motor impairment scores of experimental and control group was statistically non-significant at p<0.05 but the difference between post-interventional mean upper limb motor impairment scores between experimental group and control group was statistically significant at p<0.05. Hence, there is statistically highly significant effect of mirror therapy on upper limb motor functions among stroke patients at p<0.05. CONCLUSION: The results of the study concluded that when both interventions were compared, Mirror therapy was found to be more effective for improving motor functions of upper limb among stroke patients in experimental group than conventional group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]