Cognitive and Psychomotor Performance of Patients After Ischemic Stroke Undergoing Early and Late Rehabilitation

Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the performance of cognitive and psychomotor functions in patients after ischemic stroke, taking into account the effectiveness of early and late rehabilitation. Methods: The study included 86 patients with ischemic stroke hospitalized in the Neurological Rehabilitation Unit. The patients were divided into two groups according to the timing of rehabilitation, considering early rehabilitation which started within 30 days of hospital discharge (56 patients), and late rehabilitation which started after 30 days of hospital discharge (30 patients). Cognitive and psychomotor functions were measured in all the study patients using the Integrated System for the Measurement of Psychophysiological Variables called Polypsychograph, including tests assessing memory, attention, eye-hand coordination, and reaction speed. The measurements were repeated after 21 days of post-stroke rehabilitation. Results: Early rehabilitation led to significant improvements in most of the parameters studied, including memory, attention, speed of thinking, and precision of movement. Late rehabilitation was followed by an improvement in the results of the indicators studied to a lesser extent than the early rehabilitation. Improvements in temporal and qualitative parameters were observed in both groups of patients undergoing early and late rehabilitation. Conclusions: In patients after ischemic stroke, early rehabilitation improved cognitive and psychomotor performance to a greater extent than late rehabilitation.