Training Helps People with Parkinson's Avoid Falls

[John Cottingham <jcott@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The source of this article is Reuters UK: http://tinyurl.com/698k6

Training Helps People with Parkinson's Avoid Falls
Wed Dec 22, 2004 07:19 PM ET 

By David Douglas
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The instability that often accompanies Parkinson's 
disease can lead to falls and even to a fear of walking, but German researchers 
report that repetitive training can help people surmount these difficulties.

As Dr. Michael Jobges told Reuters Health, standard Parkinson's drugs have 
"negligible influence" on postural instability.

"We developed a repetitive training of compensatory steps to enhance protective 
postural responses by using training strategies based on recent 
neurophysiological research," he explained

Jobges and his colleagues at the University of Leipzig studied 14 patients who 
underwent two weeks of repetitive postural training for 20 minutes twice daily.

First -- before the training sessions -- the patients were given visual 
feedback on a computer screen showing the actual position of their center of 
gravity. During and after these processes the subjects repeatedly underwent 
analysis of posture and gait and were shown how to adjust their steps to 
compensate for their unsteadiness.

The repetitive training consisted of a physiotherapist applying pushes or pulls 
to the patient's back or side, to which he or she responded by taking a 
counterbalancing step. Insufficient steps were corrected while good efforts 
were given "positive feedback." The overall goal was to hold stability "after 
the pushes by large compensatory steps."

After training, there were significant changes in a variety of measures, 
according to the teams report in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and 
Psychiatry. Step length increased, walking speed improved and self-rated 
mobility scores increased.

Moreover, the improvements persisted after two months without further training.

Thus, concluded Dr. Jobges, "the repetitive training of compensatory steps is 
an effective approach in the therapy of postural instability and should be 
applied if postural instability is evident."

SOURCE: Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, December 2004.

 

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