Participants: 31 subjects diagnosed with idiopathic PD with pain at baseline evaluation. Interventions: Skilled physical therapy and/or occupational therapy program, which included flexibility, range of motion, strengthening, balance training, gait training, and/or postural exercises. Main Outcome Measures: Patient BPI ratings prior to and after the supervised therapy program, including BPI pain (each rated on 0-10 scale) at worst, pain on average, and the effect of pain on general activity, mood, walking ability, sleep, and enjoyment of life.Results: 17 females and 14 males, mean age 72.5 years (SD 9.04) completed surveys pre-and post-therapy interventions. The mean improvement in BPI pain at worst was 1.55 (PϽ.0004, paired t-test, dfϭ28) and pain on average 1.67 (PϽ.002, paired t-test, dfϭ29). Improvements also occurred with regard to the effect of pain on general activity (PϽ.02, paired t-test, dfϭ23), sleep (PϽ.037, paired t-test, dfϭ24), and enjoyment of life (PϽ.046, Wilcoxon sign-rank test, dfϭ25). There was no significant effect of pain on walking ability (PϽ.25) or mood (PϽ.30). Conclusions: A supervised treatment program in physical therapy and/or occupational therapy designed to address impairments related to the patients' Parkinson disease has the additional benefit of improving patients' pain scores. Significant improvements were found in self-reported pain scores of pain at worst and pain on average, as well as improvements in the effect of pain on general activity, sleep, and enjoyment of life.
