Dallas ? As long as five years after suffering a stroke, people were able to regain use of a weak arm when their strong arm was restrained during two weeks of intensive therapy, new research shows.

The study was small but is the best evidence yet that this simple and novel treatment may help restore movement to thousands of stroke victims left with impaired limbs.

Patients also retained the benefits of this brief treatment up to two years afterward, according to the findings published Thursday in the American Heart Assn.’s online journal Stroke.

It is the second study in two weeks to report success with constraint or “forced use” therapy, in which a hand splint or sling is used to immobilize the patient’s good arm while intensive daily physical therapy is given to strengthen the weak one.

The idea is to try to encourage the brain to rewire itself and send more signals to the impaired area and help it recover.