Imagine your legs suddenly freezing in place, making it almost impossible to take another step forward. That’s what happens to many patients with Parkinson’s disease who experience freezing of gait (FOG). FOG can lead to falls, loss of independence, and reduced quality of life. Traditional treatments like medicine and surgery haven’t been very effective in addressing FOG in PD patients. But there’s a new therapy on the scene: music-based movement therapy (MMT). Like having a rhythm to guide your steps, MMT involves listening to music while exercising. And it seems to be a promising solution. This randomized controlled trial divided participants into three groups: MMT group, exercise therapy (ET) group, and control group. After four weeks of intervention, the MMT group showed significant improvements in FOG compared to the control group and ET group. They also experienced better motor function, gait velocity, ankle and knee range of motion, and more. These findings suggest that MMT could be a game-changer for PD patients with FOG. To dive deeper into this exciting research, check out the full article!

BackgroundProgression of freezing of gait (FOG), a common pathological gait in Parkinson’s disease (PD), has been shown to be an important risk factor for falls, loss of independent living ability, and reduced quality of life. However, previous evidence indicated poor efficacy of medicine and surgery in treating FOG in patients with PD. Music-based movement therapy (MMT), which entails listening to music while exercising, has been proposed as a treatment to improve patients’ motor function, emotions, and physiological activity. In recent years, MMT has been widely used to treat movement disorders in neurological diseases with promising results. Results from our earlier pilot study revealed that MMT could relieve FOG and improve the quality of life for patients with PD.ObjectiveTo explore the effect of MMT on FOG in patients with PD.Materials and methodsThis was a prospective, evaluator-blinded, randomized controlled study. A total of 81 participants were randomly divided into music-based movement therapy group (MMT, n = 27), exercise therapy group (ET, n = 27), and control group (n = 27). Participants in the MMT group were treated with MMT five times (1 h at a time) every week for 4 weeks. Subjects in the ET group were intervened in the same way as the MMT group, but without music. Routine rehabilitation treatment was performed on participants in all groups. The primary outcome was the change of FOG in patients with PD. Secondary evaluation indicators included FOG-Questionnaire (FOG-Q) and the comprehensive motor function.ResultsAfter 4 weeks of intervention, the double support time, the cadence, the max flexion of knee in stance, the max hip extension, the flexion moment of knee in stance, the comprehensive motor function (UPDRS Part III gait-related items total score, arising from chair, freezing of gait, postural stability, posture, MDS-UPDRS Part II gait-related items total score, getting out of bed/a car/deep chair, walking and balance, freezing), and the FOG-Q in the MMT group were lower than that in the control group and ET group (p < 0.05). The gait velocity, the max ankle dorsiflexion in stance, ankle range of motion (ROM) during push-off, ankle ROM over gait cycle, the knee ROM over gait cycle, and the max extensor moment in stance (ankle, knee) in the MMT group were higher than that in the control group and ET group (p < 0.05). However, no significant difference was reported between the control group and ET group (p > 0.05). The stride length and hip ROM over gait cycle in the MMT group were higher than that in the control group (p < 0.05), and the max knee extension in stance in the MMT group was lower than that in the control group (p < 0.05). Nevertheless, there was no significant difference between the ET group and MMT group (p > 0.05) or control group (p > 0.05).ConclusionMMT improved gait disorders in PD patients with FOG, thereby improving their comprehensive motor function.

Read Full Article (External Site)