nouvelle recherche: Pour un bon départ sur le rétablissement cognitif après un AVC, Bouger, À tout moment

Plus que 7 millions d'Américains ont survécu à un accident vasculaire cérébral, selon l'American Stroke Association, et jusqu'à 83 pour cent des survivants d'un AVC souffrent de déficience cognitive. Évolution de la mobilité résultant, les compétences linguistiques et le fonctionnement du cerveau peut sérieusement diminuer la qualité de vie. Pitt chercheurs disent que si les médecins et les patients avaient longtemps cru que la fenêtre d'opportunité pour retrouver les capacités cognitives plus ferme trois mois après un AVC, suivant ce qui est connu comme la phase aiguë, leur étude, publié dans la revue Stroke, suggère le contraire.

It’s not every day a PhD candidate gets published in a major academic journal like Stroke. “I didn’t know the paper was going to be accepted in Stroke. Je pensais que c'était sortie de ma ligue,” ledit Lauren Oberlin, photo, qui est le premier auteur de l'étude. Mais son mentor, Professeur de psychologie Kirk Erickson, conseillé de viser haut. “It was a really pleasant surprise,” Oberlin dit.

Exercise is a known aid for other types of cognitive decline such as dementia and Parkinson’s disease, ledit Lauren Oberlin, a Pitt PhD candidate in psychologie and lead author of the paper. But when it comes to stroke recovery, there’s little consensus about when to start being physically active or what kinds of interventions could yield the biggest cognitive gains. There’s also much more research on mobility and language deficits than there is on stroke survivors’ associated memory problems and other cognitive losses, dit-elle.

Alors, Oberlin and Kirk Erickson, a Pitt professor of psychology who studies physical activity and aging, analyzed the existing peer-reviewed studies on poststroke exercise.

Kirk Erickson, professeur de psychologie, has been at Pitt since 2008.

Their paper notes that only one prior study, Publié dans 2012 by Australian collaborators, had done a similar meta-analysis of the available data. Depuis, the body of work on physical activity’s relationship to cognitive functioning in stroke patients has nearly doubled.

Oberlin’s comprehensive analysis suggests it’s never too late to get back on the proverbial horse.

“We found that subjects who began exercising, en moyenne, 2.6 years after they had a stroke, still experienced cognitive gains,” Oberlin said. This shows that “cognitive gains are possible in the chronic stroke phase [even after three months] with physical activity.”

The paper also noted that the type and duration of physical activity didn’t seem to matter much in intervention trials.

In the first three months following a stroke, “the brain is dealing with what happened and making new connections and trying to fix itself,” said Oberlin. Much of the neural repair occurs during this time, dit-elle. Mais, as long as a patient begins exercising in whatever way possible, no matter how soon or long after their stroke, the brain will likely benefit.

The best results did come from a combination of cardiovascular and strength training, Oberlin dit, as working up a sweat and building muscle together seem to provide optimal benefits for improving attention and processing speed, executive functioning and working memory.

“This has a lot of real-world application to the type of exercise that’s integrated into rehabilitation programs," dit-elle.

Comme incitation supplémentaire, « Ce n'est pas un cher $1,000 pilule,» Dit Erickson. « L'activité physique est recommandée en tout cas pour des raisons de mobilité. Cela va juste être une raison de plus d'y aller « .

Erickson et Oberlin sont encouragés par l'idée que certains des pires effets cognitifs de l'AVC et le vieillissement ne doit pas être permanente.

« Les gens peuvent modifier leurs trajectoires de vieillissement,” Oberlin said. « Behaviorally, il donne de l'espoir des gens « .

La source: www.pittwire.pitt.edu