ArticlesEfficacy of a physical therapy program in patients with Parkinson’s disease: A randomized controlled trial
Section snippets
Participants
A total of 68 subjects diagnosed with typical, idiopathic PD participated in this study, which was conducted at 2 sites. Thirty-seven subjects participated at the Boston site in the United States, and 31 participated at the Amsterdam site in the Netherlands. At the Boston site, subjects were recruited from the Department of Neurology at Boston Medical Center and from local support groups in the Boston area. At the Amsterdam site, subjects were recruited from the Department of Neurology at Vrije
Results
A total of 68 subjects (37 from Boston, 31 from Amsterdam) met the inclusion criteria, consented to participate, completed baseline assessments, and were randomly allocated to either group A or group B (see fig 1). All subjects completed all baseline assessments except for the UPDRS, which was not administered to 11 subjects admitted to the study. Sixty-three subjects completed the intervention. Two subjects withdrew from treatment because of medical complications unrelated to PD, 2 withdrew
Discussion
The findings of our present study partially support our main hypothesis in that gains were observed in functional status and quality of life related to physical mobility but not in global quality of life or at the impairment level. Our results reveal significant improvements in the SIP motor score, UPDRS ADL score, UPDRS total score, and CWS in the intervention group (PT and medication), compared with the control group (medication only). No significant differences between groups were found for
Conclusions
People with typical, idiopathic PD within Hoehn and Yahr stage II or III benefit in the short term from PT group treatment in addition to their MT with regard to function related to ADLs, CWS, and QOL related to mobility. Long-term benefits were observed in CWS, UPDRS ADL, and total scores but varied between groups.
Acknowledgments
We thank the physical therapists who implemented the rehabilitation program: Maureen Bourque, Lisa Azzam, Jean Peteet, Ingrid Burgers, Muriel Koolstra, and Nella Guinee; and those who assisted with data collection: Masa Kubo, Chia-ling Ho, Diane Dalton, Dan White, Paula McDonald, Samyra Keus, and Martijn Heijmans.
References (33)
- et al.
Intensity of leg and arm training after primary middle-cerebral-artery strokea randomised trial
Lancet
(1999) - et al.
The SIP68a measure of health-related functional status in rehabilitation medicine
Arch Phys Med Rehabil
(1996) - et al.
Resonant frequencies of arms and legs identify different walking patterns
J Biomech
(2000) - et al.
Dynamics of pathological gait
Hum Mov Sci
(1994) - et al.
Behavioral treatment of Parkinson’s disease leads to improvement of motor skills and to tremor reduction
Behav Ther
(1996) - et al.
Imaging of the dopaminergic neurotransmission system using single-proton emission tomography and positron emission tomography in patients with parkinsonism
Eur J Nucl Med
(1999) Parkinson’s diseaseDiagnosis and treatment
West J Med
(1996)- et al.
Epidemiology of Parkinson’s disease and akinetic syndromes
Curr Opin Neurol
(2000) - et al.
Diagnostic criteria for Parkinson’s disease
Arch Neurol
(1999) - et al.
The effects of physical therapy in Parkinson’s diseasea research synthesis
Arch Phys Med Rehabil
(2001)
The effectiveness of occupational therapy-related treatments for persons with Parkinson’s diseasea meta-analytic review
Am J Occup Ther
A comparison of physiotherapy techniques for patients with Parkinson’s disease
Cochrane Database Syst Rev
Physiotherapy for patients with Parkinson’s disease
Cochrane Database Syst Rev
Measuring healtha guide to rating scales and questionnaires
Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale
Physical therapy and Parkinson’s diseasea controlled clinical trial
Neurology
Cited by (0)
No commercial party having a direct financial interest in the results of the research supporting this article has or will confer a benefit upon the author(s) or upon any organization with which the author(s) is/are associated.