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Objective: To explore strategies that persons with persistent shoulder pain after stroke use to manage their pain in daily life. Design: A qualitative study using semi-structured face-to-face interviews, analysed by content analysis. Setting: A university hospital. Subjects: Thirteen community-dwelling persons (six women; median age: 65 years; range 57–77) with shoulder pain after stroke were interviewed median two years after the pain onset. Results: An overall theme ‘Managing shoulder pain by adopting various practical and cognitive strategies’ emerged from the analysis. Three categories were identified: (1) practical modifications to solve daily life problems; (2) changed movement patterns and specific actions to mitigate the pain, by non-painful movements, avoidance of pain-provoking activities and various pain distracting activities and (3) learned how to deal with the pain mentally. Several strategies were used simultaneously and they were experienced successful to various degrees. Conclusion: The findings in the present study indicate that persons with persistent shoulder pain after stroke use both practical and cognitive strategies to manage their pain.

To evaluate the test-retest reliability of the Shape/Texture Identification test (STI-testA test-retest design.University hospital outpatient setting.Forty-five persons (mean age 65 years) with mild to moderate impairments in the arm and hand6 months post stroke.Not applicable.The STI-testThe median total score of the STI-testThe STI-test

Objective: To evaluate the long-term benefits of constraint-induced movement therapy in chronic stroke. Design: A four-year follow-up after constraint-induced group therapy assessing arm and hand function and self-reported daily hand use. Subjects: Fourteen post-stroke individuals (six women and eight men; mean age 59.6 ± 12.7 years, range 23—75 years) with mild to moderate impairments of hand function. Outcome measures: The Sollerman hand function test and the Motor Activity Log test. Results: Four years after constraint-induced group therapy the participants had maintained their hand function, as measured by the Sollerman hand function test. The self-reported use and quality of movements of the more affected hand, as measured by the Motor Activity Log test, had decreased compared to post-treatment and three months follow-up (P Conclusion: There seems to be a long-term benefit of constraint-induced group therapy. Hand function was maintained over time and daily hand use had increased compared to pre-treatment. To provide guidelines about the clinical use of constraint-induced movement therapy further, larger and controlled studies are needed.