A stroke can cause loss of brain function due to lack of blood flow, resulting in limited mobility and communication skills. Physical and speech therapy can help with recovery, but some conditions such as Parkinson’s and dementia may have long-term effects.
A stroke is a loss of brain function due to lack or decrease of blood flow to the brain. There can be any number of causes for a stroke, including blood clots or aneurysms. This leaves the area of the brain affected by the stroke unable to function. A stroke survivor faces many challenges as they begin the road to recovery, including limited mobility and communication skills.
One of the common effects of stroke is reduced mobility of the stroke survivor. Depending on which area of the brain has been affected by the loss of blood and oxygen, the patient may have impaired mobility on the entire right or left side of the body. Rehabilitation will include physical therapy to improve strength and endurance. Your physical therapist may also work on specific tasks, such as climbing stairs or tying your shoes.
For example, a stroke survivor may have difficulty coordinating leg movements because one of their legs may be fully functional, while the other is not. Physical therapy will include strength and endurance training. In another common scenario, the patient may be able to move his or her limbs, but has a limited range of motion with those limbs. If so, physical therapy exercises may include moving the limb repeatedly in increasingly large intervals.
It’s also not uncommon for a stroke survivor to face aphasia, a condition that causes difficulty producing or processing speech. A speech therapist can work to improve language skills with the stroke survivor through cognitive language therapy by requiring them to interpret the characteristics of different emotional tones in voices. There is also dysphasia, which is a condition characterized by difficulty swallowing due to malfunction of the muscles in the mouth and throat. Dysphasia often requires a combination of speech therapy and physical therapy to strengthen the muscles in the throat. Some prescription medicines such as some amphetamines or antidepressants can also be used in conjunction with speech therapy to treat both conditions.
Other challenges facing a stroke survivor can be serous conditions with long-term effects. Parkinson’s disease, a condition characterized by slow progression of tremors, stiffness, and slowness of movement, is often traced back to a stroke. Dementia can also be caused by loss of brain function due to a stroke. Both conditions have little chance of being reversed or improved.
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