Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Examining The Relationship Between Disability, Impairment, And Chronic Pain In Childhood Cerebral Palsy: A Scoping Review And Critical Analysis, Muning Zhang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Young people with cerebral palsy (CP) experience chronic pain at rates higher than their non-disabled peers. Despite this recognition, there have been no studies that have addressed how young people with CP’s experiences with chronic pain are represented and studied in the literature, and especially not through a critical disability studies lens. Foucault’s notion of discourse was used to guide critical analysis of studies. This scoping review was guided by the research question: “What is known about the relation between children’s experiences of chronic pain and cerebral palsy in the health and rehabilitation literature?”. Thirty-five studies were included in …

Inertial Measurement Units As Proxy Measures For Knee Kinetic Variables Associated With Acl Injury, Kavon Bonakdar

Masters Theses

Anterior cruciate ligament injuries are among the most severe in sports, with significant long-term consequences for athletes, including a high risk of re-injury and early-onset osteoarthritis. Current rehabilitation methods and return-to-sport assessments often fall short in preventing re-injury, primarily due to a reliance on performance symmetry and strength profiles that do not adequately account for movement strategies. This study aims to bridge the gap between advanced biomechanical assessments and practical rehabilitation methods by investigating the potential of inertial measurement units to serve as reliable surrogates for traditional force plate measurements in assessing kinetic variables during ACLR rehabilitation.

The study involved …

Incarceration Vs Treatment: Is One More Effective Than The Other In Preventing Recidivism For Drug Abuse?, Scott G. Kang

Student Theses

This study aims to determine the most effective approach for reducing recidivism among drug offenders, comparing incarceration with treatment. Two hypotheses were formulated for this research: 1) Drug offenders undergoing residential treatment will experience lower recidivism rates compared to those sentenced to incarceration. 2) Extended therapeutic treatment is more likely to positively influence behavior change among drug abusers compared to longer prison sentences. These hypotheses were tested using data from 263 participants in the Drug Treatment Alternative-to-Prison (DTAP) program, analyzed through logistic regression in SPSS. The results indicate that therapeutic interventions, specifically rehabilitative treatment, are more effective than incarceration in …

The Implementation Of Animal Assisted Therapy In Adult Neurological Rehabilitation, Rachel Camilleri

OTD Capstone Projects

This doctoral capstone project was completed through a partnership with Pi Beta Phi Rehabilitation Institute at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The focus of this project was to develop animal assisted therapy interventions that could be utilized amongst occupational therapy practitioners with the clinic’s facility dog in an effort to increase utilization of animal assisted therapy. The process for this project required a thorough review of the literature on animal assisted therapy and neurological rehabilitation, conversations with current and past facility dog teams to learn about their work, and trialing animal assisted therapy activities in patient sessions. The outcome of this …

”To Be Or Not To Be – It’S Good”: Actor And Student Experiences In A Drama Club For People With Aphasia, Jade K. Hannan

Senior Theses

Individuals with aphasia, a disorder caused by damage to the brain’s language network, confront a variety of social and emotional struggles. While leaving their cognition largely intact, aphasia tremendously impacts a person’s ability to communicate confidently, fracturing their social network and contributing to feelings of loneliness and frustration. To address this persistent need in the chronic aphasia population, the Play on Words drama club at the University of South Carolina provides a forum for people with aphasia (PWA) to engage in dramatic exercises focused on non-verbal communication of emotions, ideas, and stories, culminating the production of an original devised play. …

Dance Intervention For Stroke Rehabilitation: Restoring Occupational Performance Through Creative Movement, Olivia Paige Allen

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Thousands of individuals are affected by cerebral vascular accidents, (CVA), also known as strokes in the United States each year, (CDC, 2023). Cerebral vascular accidents are one of the leading causes of death among the elderly population in the U.S. each year, (NIH et al., 2023). The deficits caused by a CVA can be global, from hemiparetic limbs and sensory loss to psychosocial impacts on an individual and their support system. In occupational therapy, the goal is to regain as much function and independence as possible for the individual who has experienced a CVA. Although many evidence-based intervention tools are …