Constraint Induced TherapyIs Constraint Induced Therapy for Me?
The concepts behind constraint induced therapy (CIT) were developed nearly a century ago when researchers realized that after a nervous system injury that impaired movement of an arm, experimental monkeys consciously avoided the use of that arm and preferentially used the “good” or intact one. Realizing that this would certainly increase recovery time, the researchers then strapped the monkey’s good arm to its body, which motivated the monkey to start using the free, but affected arm. This accelerated recovery. The researchers called this “forced therapy.” Since then, this therapy has adopted new names, including constraint induced therapy and constraint induced movement therapy (CIMT). The benefits of CIMT were shown in a randomized control trial which was published at the end of 2006 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Who Can Get CIT? The clinical trial (EXCITE), which proved the efficacy of CIMT, revealed that it worked best for people with moderate strokes affectin
