Description of research
Pain in the shoulder is a common problem after stroke. As well as causing distress through pain and lost sleep, it prevents rehabilitation of the arm and hand. There are guidelines on how to deal with post-stroke shoulder pain, but most healthcare professionals think they are unhelpful. It's believed that this is because not enough attention is paid to the underlying causes of the pain. If we don’t know the cause of someone’s pain then it is very difficult to choose the correct treatment.
The focus of this proposal is to help people with painful shoulders who also have a restriction in how far the shoulder can be moved in a particular direction, in an ‘external rotation’. This work will identify who, when and how to treat people with painful shoulders after stroke more effectively, and should lead to better outcomes for them.