Rehabilitation therapy is designed to directly address the muscles and the structures. This includes therapies like strength building and range of motion. These might not be top priority when working with someone who has multiple sclerosis. Rather, therapists working with MS patients often choose to go with a compensation type of approach. These are interventions that are directed at reducing the effects of biomechanical abnormalities on the bolus flow.
Postural adjustment is a good example of a category of compensatory intervention.
So far, treatment effectiveness has been limited to measurement of the physiologic, the biomechanical, and the bolus flow outcomes. Critical to that expansion is a multidimensional repertoire of outcome measures designed to understand more completely the treatment value and treatment effectiveness. However, we are beginning to realize the need for measurement of the indirect outcomes such as mortality, health status, and quality of life. Those are valid outcome measures limited to the clinician's point of view because they are manipulated by a clinician and do not incorporate the patient's perspective and what the patient wants to do in terms of intake. The latter is important because physiological functioning is not synonymous with patient functioning and well being.