Practice of mental protocols used in rehabilitation of patients with Parkinson’s disease: a systematic review

Abstract

The Mental Practice (MP) consists of a training method by which a given specific motor act is cognitively reproduced internally and repeated with the intention of promoting learning or improvement of motor skills, without inducing any real movement. The results of MP to research in Parkinson’s disease are still ambiguous due to various reasons such as the diversity of the intervention protocols. The MP with intervention protocols are cognitively complex and challenging presenting variations in its application concerning the type of PM, task/movement to be imagined and type of instruction. Objective: The study aimed to investigate the literature MPs protocols used for motor rehabilitation of individuals with Parkinson’s disease. Methods: The searches of this systematic review was performed on the portals databases: PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and Medicine. The descriptors were: (“mental practice” or “engine imagery” or “imagery training” and “Parkinson”). Results: 128 articles were found, of which only 4 were included according to the eligibility criteria. Conclusion: The protocols that have proven to be effective for reducing bradykinesia, improving mobility and gait speed used the MP combined with physical practice in 12 sessions, of 5 to 30 minutes, visual or visual and kinesthetic imagery of specific activities and used gait videos of patients or healthy subjects promote familiarization and identification of kinematic components of the movement

The efficacy of imagery in the rehabilitation of people with Parkinson’s disease: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…The way this happens is not fully understood. But it is hypothesised that both psychological and physiological mechanisms are involved [ 13 ]. The psychological mechanism is suggested to be improving the cognitive elements of skills, including breaking an action down into steps, attentional focus, and promoting learning of movement strategies by exploring different execution patterns.…”

“…To date, there is no synthesised evaluation of the literature regarding the efficacy of imagery in PD rehabilitation. Da Silva, de Sales [ 26 ] offer comprehensive descriptions of imagery protocols in PD in their systematic review. Further research to determine the efficacy of these protocols is needed to bridge this gap in knowledge.…”