Mental Practice Combined With Physical Practice to Improve the Gait Performance of People With Parkinson's Disease

NCT ID: NCT02904837

Last Updated: 2018-09-19

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 20 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2015-03-31
• Study Completion Date: 2017-12-31

Brief Summary

Among the impairments associated to Parkinson's disease, gait disturbance is one of which that has the most negative impact on the independence in daily living activities and quality of life of people living with Parkinson's disease. Despite the considerable amount of research, we have no consensus about the most efficient physiotherapeutic approach to improve the gait disturbance. Mental practice is considered an efficient strategy to improve the motor performance in healthy individuals and people with stroke. However, there is scarce evidence about its therapeutic results to improve the gait performance in people living with Parkinson's disease. Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate the effects of gait mental practice associated to physical practice to improve the gait performance in people living with Parkinson's disease.

Detailed Description

Background: Among the impairments associated to Parkinson's disease, the gait disturbance is one of which that has the most negative impact on the independence in daily living activities and quality of life of people living with Parkinson's disease. Despite the considerable amount of research, we have no consensus about the most efficient physiotherapeutic approach to improve the gait disturbance. Mental practice is considered an efficient strategy to improve the motor performance in healthy individuals and people with stroke. However, there is scarce evidence about its therapeutic results to improve the gait performance in people living with Parkinson's disease.

Objectives: To investigate the effects of mental gait practice associated with physical practice to improve the gait performance of people living with Parkinson's disease.

Design: Parallel, prospective, double-blind, multicentre randomized clinical trial.

Setting: Brazilian Parkinson Association.

Participants: Twenty-two people living with Parkinson's disease in stages 2-3 of disease evolution according to Hoehn and Yahr Classification.

Interventions: The participants will be randomly allocated in an experimental group and a control group. Both groups will perform 10 individual training sessions, two times per week, for five weeks. The training sessions consist of four blocks of mental practice intercalated with four blocks of physical practice of gait under different conditions. The only difference between the groups will be the content of mental practice blocks: the experimental group will perform mental practice of gait while the control group performs non-gait mental practice.

Randomization: Participants will be randomized by ClinStat software into one of two groups: Experimental Group (EG), which will perform gait mental practice; and Control Group (CG), which will perform the non-gait mental practice.

Statistical analysis: The training effects for each primary and secondary outcome measure will be analyzed for the two training conditions (i.e., control and experimental) at the four assessment time points (i.e., pre-intervention, 7 days post-completion and at 30 and 60-day follow-up) using a mixed-design ANOVA with training as the between-group factor and the assessment time point as the within-group factor. The effect sizes (ES) will be calculated for all comparisons at alpha = 0.05. A Tukey HSD post-hoc test will be used for multiple comparisons and p-values below 5 % will be considered as statistically significant.

Conditions

Parkinson Disease

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: TREATMENT
• Blinding Strategy: DOUBLE

Study Groups

Experimental Group (EG)

The Experimental training (ET) consists of 10 sessions with 4 blocks of MP (GMP) intercalated with 4 blocks of gait physical practice (GPP), under single (ST) and dual-task (DT) conditions.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Experimental training

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Each block of MP consists of 5 mental walking attempts with 10 imagined steps. Participants, seated comfortably, eyes closed, will be asked to imagine themselves walking as of a first-person perspective, without any overt physical movement, in four different conditions: habitual speed, as fast as possible, overcoming obstacles and memorizing a name of a specific medication.

Each block of PP consists of 5 physical walking attempts, with 10 steps. Participants will be asked to walk in 4 different conditions: habitual speed,as fast as possible, overcoming obstacles and memorizing a name of a specific medication.

Control Group

The Control training (CT) consists of 10 sessions with 4 blocks of MP (nGMP) intercalated with 4 blocks of gait physical practice (GPP), under single (ST) and dual-task (DT) conditions.

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Control training

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Each block of MP consists of 5 mental walking attempts with 10 imagined steps. Participants, seated comfortably, eyes closed, will be asked to imagine themselves seated appreciating a beautiful landscape as of a first-person perspective, without any overt physical movement, in four different contexts: in a carriage, in a hot air balloon, in a boat and in a zepelin.

Each block of PP consists of 5 physical walking attempts, with 10 steps. Participants will be asked to walk in 4 different conditions: habitual speed,as fast as possible, overcoming obstacles and memorizing a name of a specific medication.

Interventions

Experimental training

Each block of MP consists of 5 mental walking attempts with 10 imagined steps. Participants, seated comfortably, eyes closed, will be asked to imagine themselves walking as of a first-person perspective, without any overt physical movement, in four different conditions: habitual speed, as fast as possible, overcoming obstacles and memorizing a name of a specific medication.

Each block of PP consists of 5 physical walking attempts, with 10 steps. Participants will be asked to walk in 4 different conditions: habitual speed,as fast as possible, overcoming obstacles and memorizing a name of a specific medication.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Control training

Each block of MP consists of 5 mental walking attempts with 10 imagined steps. Participants, seated comfortably, eyes closed, will be asked to imagine themselves seated appreciating a beautiful landscape as of a first-person perspective, without any overt physical movement, in four different contexts: in a carriage, in a hot air balloon, in a boat and in a zepelin.

Each block of PP consists of 5 physical walking attempts, with 10 steps. Participants will be asked to walk in 4 different conditions: habitual speed,as fast as possible, overcoming obstacles and memorizing a name of a specific medication.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• diagnosis of Parkinson's disease according to the United Kingdom Brain Bank criteria;
• in stage 2-3 of the disease evolution according to the Hoehn and Yahr;
• treated with levodopa or its synergists;
• capable to walk independently indoors without aid;
• referring 5 years of education or more.

Exclusion Criteria

• presence of other neurological (excluding PD), orthopedic or cardiopulmonary problems;
• visual and auditory deficiency uncorrected;
• dementia [assessed by Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), cut-off 26];
• depression [according to the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15), cut-off 6];
• declined imagery capacity [according to the Revised Movement Imagery Questionnaire (MIQ-R) cut-off 10].

• Minimum Eligible Age: 65 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 80 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

University of Sao Paulo General Hospital

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

Maria Elisa P Piemonte, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Department of Physioterapy , Communication Science&Disorders, Occupational Therapy, School of Medicine, University of São Paulo

Locations

Brazil Parkinson Association

São Paulo, , Brazil

Countries

Brazil

Other Identifiers

Pikel 01

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id