Rehabilitation treatment of gait in patients with Parkinson's disease with freezing: A comparison between two physical therapy protocols using visual and auditory cues with or without treadmill training
✍ Scribed by Giuseppe Frazzitta; Roberto Maestri; Davide Uccellini; Gabriella Bertotti; Paola Abelli
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2009
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 182 KB
- Volume
- 24
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0885-3185
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✦ Synopsis
Abstract
Freezing is a disabling symptom in patients with Parkinson's disease. We investigated the effectiveness of a new rehabilitation strategy based on treadmill training associated with auditory and visual cues. Forty Parkinsonian patients with freezing were randomly assigned to two groups: Group 1 underwent a rehabilitation program based on treadmill training associated with auditory and visual cues, while Group 2 followed a rehabilitation protocol using cues and not associated with treadmill. Functional evaluation was based on the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale Motor Section (UPDRS III), Freezing of Gait Questionnaire (FOGQ), 6‐minute walking test (6MWT), gait speed, and stride cycle. Patients in both the groups had significant improvements in all variables considered by the end of the rehabilitation program (all P = 0.0001). Patients treated with the protocol including treadmill, had more improvement than patients in Group 2 in most functional indicators (P = 0.007, P = 0.0004, P = 0.0126, and P = 0.0263 for FOGQ, 6MWT, gait speed, stride cycle, respectively). The most striking result was obtained for 6MWT, with a mean increase of 130 m in Group 1 compared with 57 m in Group 2. Our results suggest that treadmill training associated with auditory and visual cues might give better results than more conventional treatments. Treadmill training probably acts as a supplementary external cue. © 2009 Movement Disorder Society