The Effect of Mirror Therapy on the Walking Ability of Patients After Stroke

Stroke is the most prevalent debilitating neurological disease in adults, which damages the motor system. Therefore, rehabilitation programs are essential to improve the condition of these patients. One of the novel rehabilitation methods is Mirror Therapy (MT).

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of MT on the walking ability of patients after stroke.

In this clinical trial, 93 patients with stroke were studied in one of the physiotherapy centers in Rasht City, Iran, in 2016. They were assigned into three groups using block randomization technique. In the MT and nonreflective groups, the rehabilitation exercises besides routine rehab program were administered in twenty 15-min sessions every other day in front of the mirror (reflective plane for the MT group) and wood (nonreflective plane for the nonreflective group). The control group received only routine physiotherapy program. The walking ability of the samples was evaluated by the Functional Ambulation Category (FAC) test before and after the intervention. For analyzing the collected data, we used the Chi-squared test, ANOVA, Shapiro-Wilk test, Kruskal-Wallis test, Friedman test, Mann-Whitney U test, and Generalized Estimating Equation (GEE) model.

There were no significant differences between the three groups before the intervention in terms of FAC test score and confounding variables. But all three groups showed a significant difference compared to their pretest scores (P<0.05). Also, the MT group showed more significant improvement in walking ability compared to the other two groups.

Mirror therapy, as a simple and client-centered treatment, combined with the routine rehabilitation programs, can improve patients’ ability to walk after a stroke.