Peter McAllister, MD: Lack of Treatment For Post-Stroke Spasticity

“I think the fact that many people haven’t heard about it much is because it is way underdiagnosed and [under-]treated.”

Patients who leave a hospital stay following a stroke or traumatic brain injury (TBI) may be subject to upper limb spasticity, a symptom that can be common among patients with neurologic disorders. Oftentimes, patients are recommended to undergo physical therapy (PT), which can help alleviate their issues, but can sometimes fall short of providing full rehabilitation.

Peter McAllister, MD, claims that patients are not made fully aware of the options to treat post-stroke upper limb spasticity. McAllister, who is the medical director of the New England Institute for Neurology and Headache and chief medical officer of the New England Institute for Clinical Research, is among a group of researchers evaluating daxibotulinumtoxinA (Revance Therapeutics) injection for the treatment of upper limb spasticity in this specific patient subgroup.

The drug has shown promise in the preliminary stages and is now entering a phase 2 trial. For more on what the current treatment landscape looks like for patients with upper limb spasticity, as well as whether this area of clinical need garners the attention it deserves, McAllister offered his insight to NeurologyLive.