A landmark study led by researchers from the Kolling Institute has confirmed that stepping up rehabilitation soon after a spinal cord injury does not improve recovery or deliver significantly better outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These important findings follow a phase 3 study involving 220 people across rehabilitation centres in Australia and Europe, including several leading Dutch and Flemish institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Researchers measured the impact of 10 weeks of additional motor training which involved 12 hours a week of extra intensive therapy on top of the usual inpatient rehabilitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The results indicated no meaningful improvements in neurological recovery, functional independence, walking ability or quality of life immediately after the 10-week program or six months later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Study lead Professor Lisa Harvey said the result suggests the current level of specialised care already provides sufficient training intensity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have confirmed that increasing training hours in the early days after an injury doesn\u2019t enhance recovery.\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Professor Harvey welcomed the large-scale, international collaboration involved in the trial, saying it has delivered a definitive result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTrials like this are not possible without the co-operation of so many different people,\u201d she said. \u201cThe successful completion of this trial shows what can be achieved when we combine forces.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhile all of us would like to see solutions and cures for people who experience a spinal cord injury, research in this field will only progress if we tease out what therapies do and don\u2019t make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Co-lead, Associate Professor Joanne Glinsky said people with this type of injury can be reassured that they don\u2019t need to chase costly and time-consuming intensive exercise programs to maximise their potential for recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat they are currently receiving is just as good,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis means that any remaining disability is not because they didn\u2019t work hard enough. We hope that this may offer patients some comfort and reassurance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The findings have been published in the highly-respected Lancet Neurology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5142,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,13],"tags":[33],"research-group-tax":[],"primary-research-area":[],"class_list":["post-5140","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-musculoskeletal-research","category-neuroscience-pain-research","tag-rehabilitation"],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Professor-Lisa-Harvey-and-AProfessor-Joanne-Glinsky-1-scaled.jpg",2560,1481,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Professor-Lisa-Harvey-and-AProfessor-Joanne-Glinsky-1-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Professor-Lisa-Harvey-and-AProfessor-Joanne-Glinsky-1-300x174.jpg",300,174,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Professor-Lisa-Harvey-and-AProfessor-Joanne-Glinsky-1-768x444.jpg",768,444,true],"large":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Professor-Lisa-Harvey-and-AProfessor-Joanne-Glinsky-1-1024x593.jpg",1024,593,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Professor-Lisa-Harvey-and-AProfessor-Joanne-Glinsky-1-1536x889.jpg",1536,889,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Professor-Lisa-Harvey-and-AProfessor-Joanne-Glinsky-1-2048x1185.jpg",2048,1185,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Jennie Crouch","author_link":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/author\/jennie-crouchhealth-nsw-gov-au\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"A landmark study led by researchers from the Kolling Institute has confirmed that stepping up rehabilitation soon after a spinal cord injury does not improve recovery or deliver significantly better outcomes. These important findings follow a phase 3 study involving 220 people across rehabilitation centres in Australia and Europe, including several leading Dutch and Flemish…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/5140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/5140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5147,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/5140\/revisions\/5147"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5140"},{"taxonomy":"research-group-tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-group-tax?post=5140"},{"taxonomy":"primary-research-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/news_demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/primary-research-area?post=5140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}