Cerebral Palsy

Vibro Acoustic Therapy provides effective help to patients with Cerebral Palsy

Prof. M. Bodor, Dr. D. Kramer, M. Ivos and Slavica Bevanda

Stancic Centre for Work Therapy and Rehabilitation, Zagreb, Croatia

In a recently concluded pilot study 29 patients with high muscle tonus and with multiple mental and physical impairments were randomly divided into two groups: experimental group (14 patients, 3 female and 11 male, average age 32.8 years) and control group (15 patients, 5 female and 10 male, average age 34.4 years). The experimental group subjected to Vibro Acoustic Therapy with music whereas the control group did not receive any such treatment. The study was conducted for 6 weeks.

Results: The results of this pilot project conducted on examinees with increased muscle tonus constantly show that when low sound frequencies were used together with soothing music, the reduction of muscle tonus and theimprovement of the level of movement was greater than when they were not subjected to any kind of treatment. The results show an improvement in the level of movement in the group that was stimulated by low sound frequencies. Additionally, there was normalization after the session for all the examinees with elevated blood pressure. Likewise, measurements show that in examinees whose body pressure values was within normal limits the values after the session were still within that range. Examinee number 14 has diagnosed arterial hypertension, and in all the sessions with him there was a decrease in body pressure value which has also been confirmed by authors worldwide.

Conclusion: The researchers concluded that VA treatment truly helps in prevention of muscle regression, normalizes blood pressure and helps in general relaxation of users. This therapy can be just as useful as or even more useful than other forms of treatment in a certain number of users.