Additional therapies in Parkinson's disease patients: useful tools for the improvement of the quality of life or senseless loss of resources?

Abstract

In advanced stages of Parkinson's disease problems of speech, mobility and balance occur with a high frequency. Although the symptoms of the disease can be treated by specific and individual pharmacotherapy, some of the severe symptoms such as freezing, falls, unsteadiness, and dysarthria persist. To evaluate the potential use of additional therapies, a diagnosis of all current symptoms must be performed; afterwards a specific individual treatment can be decided by the therapist based on objective data. Only if the initial evaluations of a new therapy show improvement, will such therapies be subjected to long-term evaluation, which should be also performed by the patient. This contribution presents examples of a useful prediagnosis and of the evaluation of the conventional physiotherapy. Also, two new methods are evaluated as additional therapies: low-frequency muscle stimulation and magnetic pulse therapy. A thorough symptomatic diagnostic view, specifically directed additional therapy and the careful evaluation of the use of therapies provide the only meaningful treatment of Parkinson's disease.