Improvement in Freezing of Gait of a Parkinson’s Disease Patient due to a Physical Therapy Intervention with an Internal Rhythmic Cue Task: A Second Report on the Progress of Treatment: Improvement Continued Despite Decrease in the Contents of the Intervention

Abstract

[Purpose] In our previous study, functional decline in the cortex-basal nucleus system was assumed to be behind the freezing of gait during walking of a Parkinson’s disease patient, and an intervention to enhance internal rhythm formation, which is one of the functions of the cortex-basal nucleus system, improved the freezing of gait. Here, the treatment progress of the case is reported with newly added considerations. [Participants and Methods] The subject was a patient with advanced stage Parkinson’s disease with freezing of gait while walking. As in our previous study, the patient performed an internal rhythm formation task while walking. For the evaluation, we recorded changes in the continuous hand-tapping task and walking ability. [Results] We confirmed improvements in the continuous hand-tapping task, walking ability, and daily living activities. [Conclusion] The results suggest that decreased internal rhythm adjustment ability is behind the freezing of gait during walking, and that an intervention to improve this ability is expected to reduce freezing of gait while walking.