scholarly journals An Immersive Virtual Reality Exergame for People with Parkinson’s Disease

Author(s):  
Weiqin Chen ◽  
Martin Bang ◽  
Daria Krivonos ◽  
Hanna Schimek ◽  
Arnau Naval

AbstractParkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that affects primarily motor system. Physical exercise is considered important for people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) to slow down disease progression and maintain abilities and quality of life. However, people with PD often experience barriers to exercises that causes low-level adherence to exercise plans and programs. Virtual Reality (VR) is an innovative and promising technology for motor and cognitive rehabilitation. Immersive VR exergames have potential advantages by allowing for individualized skill practice in a motivating interactive environment without distractions from outside events. This paper presents an immersive virtual reality (VR) exergame aiming at motor training on fingers and hand-and-eye coordination. The results from the usability study indicate that immersive VR exergames have potential to provide motivating and engaging physical exercise for people with PD. Through this research, we hope to contribute to evidence-based design principles for task-specific immersive VR exergames for patients with Parkinson’s Disease.

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danielle Carneiro de Menezes Sanguinetti ◽  
Maria das Graças Wanderley de Sales Coriolano ◽  
Charleny Mary Ferreira de Santana ◽  
Thaisa Damasceno de Albuquerque Ângelo ◽  
Juliana Patrícia de Araújo Silva ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
pp. 026921552199517
Author(s):  
Runze Li ◽  
Yanran Zhang ◽  
Yunxia Jiang ◽  
Mengyao Wang ◽  
Wei How Darryl Ang ◽  
...  

Objective: To examine the effectiveness of rehabilitation training based on virtual reality in improving balance, quality of life, activities of daily living, and depressive symptoms of patients with Parkinson’s disease. Data sources: PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, Scopus, Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, ProQuest, Physiotherapy Evidence Database, IEEE Xplore, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang, and VIP Information databases were searched from their inception to October 15, 2020. Trial registries, gray literature, and target journals were also searched. Methods: Eligible randomized controlled trials included studies with patients with Parkinson’s disease in rehabilitation training based on virtual reality. Comprehensive Meta-Analysis 3.0 software was used. Physiotherapy Evidence Database Scale and the Grading of Recommendation, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation system were used to assess the methodological quality of individual trials and the overall quality of the evidence, respectively. Results: A total of 22 randomized controlled trials with 836 patients were included. Meta-analysis revealed that training significantly improved balance ( g = 0.66, P < 0.001), quality of life ( g = 0.28, P = 0.015), activities of daily living ( g = 0.62, P < 0.001), and depressive symptoms ( g = 0.67, P = 0.021) compared to the control group. Subgroup analysis indicated that training should utilize video game consoles. Meta-regression analyses showed that age, sessions, and frequency of training had statistically significant impacts on balance scores. Quality of individual trials was high and overall evidence ranged from very low to low. Conclusion: Virtual rehabilitation training could be adopted in healthcare institutions as supplementary training for patients with Parkinson’s disease.


Medicina ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 314
Author(s):  
Aida Arroyo-Ferrer ◽  
Francisco José Sánchez-Cuesta ◽  
Yeray González-Zamorano ◽  
María Dolores del Castillo ◽  
Carolina Sastre-Barrios ◽  
...  

Background: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder. This disease is characterized by motor symptoms, such as bradykinesia, tremor, and rigidity. Although balance impairment is characteristic of advanced stages, it can be present with less intensity since the beginning of the disease. Approximately 60% of PD patients fall once a year and 40% recurrently. On the other hand, cognitive symptoms affect up to 20% of patients with PD in early stages and can even precede the onset of motor symptoms. There are cognitive requirements for balance and can be challenged when attention is diverted or reduced, linking a worse balance and a higher probability of falls with a slower cognitive processing speed and attentional problems. Cognitive rehabilitation of attention and processing speed can lead to an improvement in postural stability in patients with Parkinson’s. Methods: We present a parallel and controlled randomized clinical trial (RCT) to assess the impact on balance of a protocol based on cognitive rehabilitation focused on sustained attention through the NeuronUP platform (Neuronup SI, La Rioja, Spain) in patients with PD. For 4 weeks, patients in the experimental group will receive cognitive therapy three days a week while the control group will not receive any therapy. The protocol has been registered at trials.gov NCT04730466. Conclusions: Cognitive therapy efficacy on balance improvement may open the possibility of new rehabilitation strategies for prevention of falls in PD, reducing morbidity, and saving costs to the health care system.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Calleo ◽  
Cristina Burrows ◽  
Harvey Levin ◽  
Laura Marsh ◽  
Eugene Lai ◽  
...  

Cognitive dysfunction in Parkinson's disease contributes to disability, caregiver strain, and diminished quality of life. Cognitive rehabilitation, a behavioral approach to improve cognitive skills, has potential as a treatment option to improve and maintain cognitive skills and increase quality of life for those with Parkinson's disease-related cognitive dysfunction. Four cognitive rehabilitation programs in individuals with PD are identified from the literature. Characteristics of the programs and outcomes are reviewed and critiqued. Current studies on cognitive rehabilitation in PD demonstrate feasibility and acceptability of a cognitive rehabilitation program for patients with PD, but are limited by their small sample size and data regarding generalization of effects over the long term. Because PD involves progressive heterogeneous physical, neurological, and affective difficulties, future cognitive rehabilitation programs should aim for flexibility and individualization, according to each patient's strengths and deficits.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni Albani ◽  
Elisa Pedroli ◽  
Pietro Cipresso ◽  
Daniel Bulla ◽  
Veronica Cimolin ◽  
...  

We followed up a series of 23 Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients who had performed an immersive virtual reality (VR) protocol eight years before. On that occasion, six patients incidentally described visual hallucinations (VH) with occurrences of images not included in the virtual environment. Curiously, in the following years, only these patients reported the appearance of VH later in their clinical history, while the rest of the group did not. Even considering the limited sample size, we may argue that VR immersive systems can induce unpleasant effects in PD patients who are predisposed to a cognitive impairment.


2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathalie Ribeiro Artigas ◽  
Vera Lúcia Widniczck Striebel ◽  
Arlete Hilbig ◽  
Carlos Roberto de Mello Rieder

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that can dramatically impair patient quality of life (QoL). Objective: To analyze the QoL, motor capacity, depression, anxiety and social phobia of individuals who attended a patient support group (PSG) compared to non-participants. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed. The sample consisted of 20 individuals with PD who attended a PSG and another 20 PD patients who did not attend a support group for PD patients, serving as the control group (nPSG). All patients answered questionnaires on motor capacity (UPDRS), QoL (Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire- PDQ-39), depression (Beck Depression Inventory), anxiety (Beck Anxiety Inventory) and social phobia (Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale). To determine data distribution, the Shapiro-Wilk test was performed. For comparison of means, Student's t-test was applied. In cases of asymmetry, the Mann-Whitney test was employed. To assess the association between the scales, Pearson's correlation coefficient (symmetric distribution) and Spearman's coefficient (asymmetric distribution) were applied. For the association between qualitative variables, Pearson's Chi-squared test was performed. A significance level of 5% (p≤0.05) was adopted. Results: Individuals in the PSG had a significantly better QoL (p=0.002), and lower depression (p=0.026), anxiety (p<0.001) and social phobia (p=0.01) scores compared to the nPSG. Conclusion: The participation of PD patients in social activities such as support groups is associated with better QoL and fewer symptoms of depression, anxiety and social phobia.


2019 ◽  
pp. 29-43

TEIXEIRA, M.E. e PEREIRA, J.L. Importância da preparação física para o paciente com doença de Parkinson. Revista Científica JOPEF, Vol.28, n.1, pp.29-43, 2019. Parkinson's disease (PD) is a chronic progressive neurodegenerative disease described by the first in 1897 as "tremor paralysis." Its symptoms are variable, the most characteristic being tremor of the hands and loss of balance and muscular strength. It usually affects men over the age of 60, but there are forms that can occur in younger individuals. The progression of symptoms causes the quality of life of the patient to deteriorate significantly, leading to the inability to perform daily activities. In addition to pharmacological treatment, physical exercise has been indicated as a way to attenuate and slow the progression of symptoms. The objective of this work is to carry out an integrative review of literature on the subject, in which articles published over the last 10 years have been analyzed, thus seeking to update the theme. In general, it was possible to perceive a positive effect of the practice of specific physical exercise programs in patients with PD, with improvement of the quality of life. In vitro studies also demonstrated the protective effect of physical exercise on the onset of the disease. Keywords: Parkinson's disease; Physical exercise; Neuroprotection; Quality of life.


2019 ◽  
pp. 50-60
Author(s):  
Helena M van Oers

Parkinson’s disease is the second most commonly diagnosed neurodegenerative disorder worldwide and the physical manifestations of the disease are well documented in the literature. However, in excess of 60% of patients with the disease report having one or more psychiatric symptoms which worsen as the disease progresses. These symptoms arise differentially from the same pathology which underlies the disease or from the treatment with dopaminergic drugs. Psychiatric and psychological difficulties tend to be under-recognised and undertreated yet cause great disability, significantly impact the quality of life of patients and add to greater burden on their caregivers. These symptoms can be relieved through adjusting the doses of anti-Parkinson’s drug therapy and success in improving psychological distress has been found using adjuvant psychotherapeutic intervention, most notably with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.


2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (10) ◽  
pp. 661
Author(s):  
Verónica Cabreira ◽  
João Massano

Parkinson’s disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder, and a significant increase in its prevalence in the past three decades has been documented. Environmental and genetic factors contribute to the pathophysiology of this disease, and 5% – 10% of cases have a monogenic cause. The diagnosis relies on clinical findings, supported by adequate testing. There is no absolute method to diagnose Parkinson’s disease in vivo, except for genetic testing in specific circumstances, whose usefulness is limited to a minority of cases. New diagnostic criteria have been recently proposed with the aim of improving diagnostic accuracy, emphasizing findings that might point to other causes of parkinsonism. The available therapeutic options are clinically useful, as they improve the symptoms as well as the quality of life of patients. After the introduction of levodopa, deep brain stimulation emerged as the second therapy with an important symptomatic impact in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. Non-motor symptoms and motor complications are responsible for a large proportion of disability, so these should be identified and treated. Current scientific research is focused on the identification of disease biomarkers allowing correct and timely diagnosis, and on creating more effective therapies, thus fulfilling current clinical unmet needs. This paper presents an updated review on Parkinson’s disease, guiding the readership through current concepts, and allowing their application to daily clinical practice.


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