Abstract
Background Parkinson's disease (PD) patients experience cognitive impairment which has been related to reduced quality of life and functional disability. These symptoms usually progress until dementia occurs. Some studies have been published assessing the efficacy of cognitive treatments on improving cognition, functional outcome, and producing changes in brain activity. Objective A critical review was performed to present up-to-date neurorehabilitation effects of cognitive rehabilitation in PD, with special emphasis on the efficacy on cognition, quality of life aspects, brain changes, and the longitudinal maintenance of these changes. Results After exclusions, 13 studies were reviewed, including 6 randomized controlled trials for the efficacy on cognition, 2 randomized controlled trials regarding the brain changes after cognitive training, and 5 studies which evaluated the long-term effects of cognitive treatments. Conclusions Cognitive rehabilitation programs have demonstrated to be effective on improving cognitive functions, but more research is needed focusing on the efficacy on improving behavioral aspects and producing brain changes in patients with PD. Moreover, there is a need of randomized controlled trials with long-term follow-up periods.
Highlights
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disease, being most of the cases diagnosed at around 60 years [1]
Focusing on the first objective of this critical review, which was to analyze those randomized controlled trials focused on the efficacy of cognitive rehabilitation programs on cognition, we selected only those studies that fulfilled the following criteria: (1) randomized controlled trials; (2) PD patients underwent a cognitive rehabilitation program; (3) the main objective was to investigate the change in cognition; and (4) studies including a PD control group
The results showed that improvements in cognitive performance and functionality were maintained after 18 months and increased functional connectivity (FC) was found at follow-up [41]
Summary
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disease, being most of the cases diagnosed at around 60 years [1]. It is known that this neurodegenerative process produces a wide range of motor and nonmotor symptoms in PD patients; PD is considered a multiple system neurodegenerative disorder [3] Among these nonmotor symptoms, cognitive impairment is an important nonmotor symptom due to its prevalence among PD patients (20–50%) [4, 5]. Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients experience cognitive impairment which has been related to reduced quality of life and functional disability. These symptoms usually progress until dementia occurs. Cognitive rehabilitation programs have demonstrated to be effective on improving cognitive functions, but more research is needed focusing on the efficacy on improving behavioral aspects and producing brain changes in patients with PD. There is a need of randomized controlled trials with long-term follow-up periods
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
