Effectiveness of a REhabilitation program to treat fatigue in patients who suffered from SubArachnoid Haemorrhage (RE-SAB); a pilot study

A subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH), a stroke subtype, has a major impact on the patient's life, with fatigue as one of the most commonly reported long-term symptoms. Fatigue leads to impairments in education/work and in social and personal activities and reduction in quality of life. Treating fatigue should therefore be an important part of rehabilitation after SAH. However, there is no suitable rehabilitation program available for these patients. Most of the patients are discharged from the hospital to their home, without receiving rehabilitation. Based on previous studies a rehabilitation program is developed, named RE-SAB, with the aim to reduce fatigue and improve quality of life. The primary aims of the pilot study are to examine whether and to what extent fatigue and quality of life of patients with SAH improve after participating in RE-SAB and whether RE-SAB is feasible . The secundary aim is to examine whether and to what extent physical activity level, physical fitness, coping style, cognition, mood, self-efficacy and social participation improve after participating in RE-SAB.

It is expected that fatigue will decrease and quality of life will increase after participating in the RE-SAB program

0, 3 and 6 months

The intervention consitst of three parts: (1) information sessions about fatigue and consequences of SAH by a rehabilition specialist and social worker; (2) session with an occupational therapist and (3) physical fitness trainingsessions