Your Therapy Source Magazine for Pediatric Therapists April 2017 Issue 93 | Page 3

RESEARCH: CONSTRAINT INDUCED MOVEMENT
THERAPY IMPROVES UPPER LIMB ACTIVITY
The Journal of Physiotherapy completed a research review examining whether
constraint-induced movement therapy improves upper limb activity and participation in
children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy. Only randomized trials (31 papers out of 597
screened abstracts) were included in the review. The randomized trials included children
with hemiplegic cerebral palsy with any level of motor disability placed in either an
experimental group who received constraint-induced movement therapy (defined as
restraint of the less affected upper limb during supervised activity practice of the more
affected upper limb) or a control group who received no intervention, sham intervention,
or the same dose of upper limb therapy.
The results indicated that:
• constraint-induced movement therapy was more effective than no/sham
intervention in terms of upper limb activity and participation.
• although constraint-induced movement therapy was no better than the same dose
of upper limb therapy without restraint either in terms of upper limb activity or
participation.
• the effect of constraint-induced movement therapy was not related to the duration
of intervention or the age of the children.
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