Effects of mental practice strategies associated with physical therapy on gait and risk of falls in Parkinson disease: experimental study

Abstract

Objective: To compare the effects of mental practice (MP) strategies associated with physical therapy on gait and risk of falls in people with Parkinson's disease (PD). Method: We included 35 people of both sexes with mild to moderate idiopathic PD allocated into four groups; 1- Control group (CG), 2- Image-guided mental practice group (IGMP), 3- Audio-guided mental practice group (AGMP) and 4- Unguided mental practice group (UMP). The subjects in the experimental groups underwent 15 sessions of motor physical therapy and mental practice, while the CG received only physical therapy. The sessions were held twice a week, 40 minutes for motor physical therapy and 1 minutes for the corresponding Mental Practice protocol. To evaluate the spatiotemporal parameters of the gait, the 10-meter Walking Test was used and the risk of falls using the Timed Up and Go (TUG). Results: The IGPM group presented significant results for the time (p= 0.027) and gait speed (p= 0.025) when compared to the results of the CG. Cadence and risk of falls had no major effect for the group. The UMP and AGMP groups did not present statistically significant results for TC10m and TUG when compared with CG. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that image-guided mental practice training associated with motor physical therapy is more effective in increasing gait speed than other MP strategies.