Study questions effectiveness of physical therapy for Parkinson's patients

The combined physiotherapy and occupational therapy that are thought to be helpful in improving quality of life for patients with mild to moderate Parkinson's disease may not be as effective as the original thought.

A British study published Tuesday in the U.S. journal JAMA Neurology claimed that these therapies do not have a positive impact on activities of daily living, such as putting on clothes or brushing teeth, in the immediate to medium term, for patients with mild or moderate Parkinson's disease.

The University of Birmingham team behind the research said that it displays a need for the reallocation of resource towards more effective treatments for patients.

Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system, affecting approximately 7 million people across the globe and four percent of those aged over 80.

The disease causes problems with activities of daily living that are only partially treated by medication and occasionally surgery. Current national guidelines said that patients should have access to physiotherapy and occupational therapy later in the disease.

In the new study, 762 patients with mild to moderate Parkinson's disease were recruited from 37 British centers, making it the largest clinical trial of rehabilitation in Parkinson's disease, and follow ups were measured for 15 months.

Half of the patients were randomized to standard practice physiotherapy and occupational therapy and the other half received no therapy.

Compared to the control group, the therapy intervention failed to meaningfully influence the activities of daily living or quality of-life measures.

The researchers concluded that it is possible that mild to moderate disease may not respond to therapies, whereas more severe disease may respond, "although this remains to be established."

"Though these therapies can provide marginal improvements to motor function, perhaps an extra centimeter in your stride, they don't lead to benefits in the quality of day to day life," Professor Carl Clarke from the University of Birmingham, who led the study, said in a statement.

"This shows that there is an urgent requirement to review current guidelines for patients with Parkinson's disease. The resource that is committed towards these therapies, that do not appear to be effective, could be better used in patients with more severe problems with their Parkinson's disease." Endit