Evidence for your Practice: Multidisciplinary, aerobic, motor-cognitive and intensive rehabilitation treatment for Parkinson's disease

Article: Ferrazzoli, D., Ortelli, P., Zivi, I., Cian, V., Urso, E., Ghilardi, M. F., ... & Frazzitta, G. (2018). Efficacy of intensive multidisciplinary rehabilitation in Parkinson’s disease: a randomised controlled study. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry, jnnp-2017.

Study Aim: To evaluate whether a multidisciplinary, aerobic, motor-cognitive and intensive rehabilitation treatment (MIRT) improves the quality of life of patients with PD in the short-term and long-term period.

Population: Patients with a diagnosis of idiopathic Parkinson's disease.

Intervention: MIRT is a 4-week programme delivered in a hospital setting, and includes:

• Four daily rehabilitative sessions for 5 days and 1 hour of physical exercise on the sixth day
• Sessions with a physical therapist, occupational therapist and speech language pathologist.

The occupational therapy sessions focus on hand dexterity, writing and activities of daily living.

Key findings: 

• Patients’ self-perception of mobility, autonomy in ADLs, emotional well-being, needing of social support, cognition, communicative abilities and bodily discomfort are enhanced after MIRT.
• This improvement was maintained along a 3-month follow-up period.

Bottom line for OT: As part of an interdisciplinary team, occupational therapy treatment can make lasting improvements in quality of life for patients with Parkinson's disease. 

Read the open access article here

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