USC Researcher Gives Stroke Patients Hope, Cures

This year the University of South Carolina raked in a record $226.9 million in research funding. Despite increased competition for coveted federal grants from agencies including the National Institutes of Health, the Defense Department and the Energy Department, the school’s total rose 3.7 percent.

But those dollars don’t just go to test tubes and lab technicians’ salaries. Much of the funding trickles down to affect the quality of life of South Carolinians, both short and long term.

Dr. Julius Fridriksson has used his grants to find new ways to rehabilitate stroke patients who suffer from chronic communication problems because damage in the left brain hemisphere. Aphasia, when someone cannot speak or properly recall words, is one of the most common effects of stroke.

Fridriksson said that traditionally, stroke patients with persistent communication problems were given up on after a certain point. But a lot of his research shows that with therapy that helps physically alter the brain, stroke patients can go beyond their natural recovery plateau and regain functions, like speaking, that were once considered a lost cause. 

“We can install hope,” Fridriksson said. “You see that you’re getting better and maybe your situation is not as grim as you thought. We now know that if you keep working at it, you will keep getting better.”

That’s good news for South Carolina, which has the eighth highest rate of stroke and where 14,470 people were hospitalized for a stroke in 2008. There is an even greater need to understand the condition in the Palmetto State because, unlike national statistics, half of South Carolina’s stroke victims are less than 60 years old, some as young as 30. 

Many Southern states have similar problems, and have been labeled the “Stroke Belt.” There is no definitive reason why the incidence of stroke is so high in the South, some researchers point to lifestyle, diet, culture, smoking and poverty.

“South Carolina is not just in the Stroke Belt in the United States, it’s really in the stroke buckle,” Fridriksson said.

His research has shown that intensive therapy, combined with stimulating specific parts of the brain with low electrical currents through the scalp, can help patients regain function in areas important to communication. From being able to recall the right word again, to even stringing together full thoughts, Fridriksson and his team have seen the results in patients and measured marked improvements in their brains.

For Joanne Child, 60, and her husband Michael, 50, who suffered a stroke last August, Fridriksson’s studies are revolutionizing their lives and helping them talk in ways they thought they never could again.

“Talking is the hardest thing for him. He understands what you say and it’s very frustrating to not be able to say what you know,” Joanne Child said. “At the very beginning I just had to guess what he was trying to say, but now he can tell me where he is and get across what he’s trying to communicate.”

She said that immediately after his stroke, her husband would try to speak, but only gibberish would come out. Now, with each additional treatment from Fridriksson’s team, Michael Child is able to pull more actual words from his arsenal and use them when he wants.

He’s still not creating longer sentences, but Joanne Child said she hopes that with more research and therapy it’s a hope for the next five years.

Until then, the couple celebrates the smallest victories, that some doctors couldn’t have anticipated several years ago.

"People don't realize that the smallest little thing is a big thing to some of these people, who couldn't get out of bed and now they can, and they can say ‘I love you’ and couldn't even say that before, you know that's a big thing," Joanne Child said.

The next step in Fridriksson’s research is a clinical trial. He’s applying to the National Institutes of Health again, and if the work gets approved he could begin testing the methods on a larger group in April. Once the techniques are proven effective by he and others in the field, hospitals and rehabilitation centers could begin using it right away.

Joanne Child said she’s grateful her husband can get extensive treatment for free, since insurance won’t cover things that go against the conventional wisdom that stroke victims’ recoveries are limited. Just the fact that he can say words now is “amazing” and incredibly emotional for her.

Though there are few families in the Childs’ unique position now, continued funding could mean that hope for recovery is on the horizon for others whose loved ones suffer chronic stroke symptoms.

“A lot of people think that if it’s a year later and you haven’t recovered you’ve done all you can do,” Joanne Child said. “But with this research they’re proving that even people that have had strokes five or ten years ago are still able to get better and be better in their daily life.”