High Muscle Tone and Spasticity

The Effect of VA Therapy on Multiply Handicapped Adults with High Muscle Tone and Spasticity

Professor Tony Wigram PhD, LGSM, RMT, RMTh, Aalborg University, Denmark

PMID: 10627970 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

10 cerebral palsy patients with spastic disorders participated in this study at St. Georges Hospital Medical School, London University in 1997. The experimental conditions included a treatment program of 30 minutes of physioacoustic treatment using recorded sedative music with a pulsed 44 Hz low-frequency sinusoidal tone and the same music conditions using the vibroacoustic equipment with no sinusoidal tone. Each subject participated in six trials of both condition, randomly ordered. The study time length for each patient was six weeks. Changes in range of movement were used for evaluation, measuring spinal mobility as well as limb flexion and extension using a centimetre ruler before and after each trial. Blood pressure and heart rate were also measured. Study results showed that greater reduction in muscle tone and improved range of movement was achieved with the music and sinusoidal tone condition than occurred with the music alone condition. Measurements showed substantial improvements in areas of the arms typically inhibited by flexor-spasms. There were variations between individuals in the study in terms of body areas most affected by the vibrations. Previous research revealed range of movement improvement with music alone and the author found it encouraging that the addition of specific low frequency tones could increase this improvement with six 30-minute sessions.