There is no universal or ideal assessment measure for hyper or hypo tonus. Your clinical area may use standardised assessments such as Functional Independence Measure (FIM), Barthel Index, Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) or patient centred assessment. It may be useful to add a simple pain scale for patients with hyper or hypo tonus.
As a team you should be clear about what you want to measure:
- Self recorded scale e.g. Like the pain scale shown here
- Specific impairment measure e.g. For the shoulder or lower limb
- A specific spasticity measure. In specialist spasticity clinics other assessment scales may be used such as Modified Ashworth Scale, Tardieu or Goal Attainment Scale (GAS) – see specialist clinic section
Page last reviewed: 04 May 2020
