Objective: To determine the effect of the dual task used as Rehabilitation therapy in the UPDRS III of patients with Parkinson’s disease.

Background: Parkinson’s disease is a pathology that progressively reduces the quality of life of the patient, for this reason within the treatment of Neurorehabilitation therapy is necessary for us to know which will be most beneficial, and other studies support that better results are obtained by doing the dual task more than the separate therapy either motor or cognitive.

Methods: A total of 22 patients with Parkinson’s disease. They have Hoehn and Yahr stage I, II and III; disease time between 2 to 3 years. All the patients discarded the cognitive deterioration using the MOCA scale and the average was 29 points (SD: 1, range: 29-30). Other neurological and psychiatric diseases were ruled out. We randomly selected 2 groups each of 11 patients, one in which they were trained with dual task (group A) and the other with a single task (Group B). The single task was to walk a distance of 6 meters by 1 minute as many times as possible at that moment, saying words that begin with the letter P and buttoning the shirt and the dual task consisted in performing my simultaneous tasks. Both groups were rehabilitated by a physical doctor and Rehabiliter for a period of 12 weeks. Patients in the group A recovery recipe in the do the task; both motor and cognitive as patients of group B, receive the restoration based on the single task. The UPDRS III was performed at the start and 12 weeks after completing the rehabilitation. The patients practiced physical therapy during the peak of their medication.

Results: Of the 22 patients with PD (8 women and 14 men), between Hoehn and Yahr stages I (5) and II (11) and III (6). Doses of dopaminergic medication ranged between 187.5-625 mg per day. The participants had an average age between 58-84 years (means: 68 and ds: 7) and an average of 11 years of formal education (DE: 5, range: 6-16 years). In group A the UPDRS III had an average of 40 (range: 25-79) and the end had an average of 30 (range: 11-65); while group B UPDRS III had an average of 38 (range: 23-76) and the end had an average of 35 (range: 20-73). After 12 weeks of rehabilitation, patients in group A decreased UPDRS III by an average of 10 points with respect to the baseline and those in group B with only an average of 3 points.

Conclusions: The dual task used as rehabilitation therapy decreases the UPDRS III of patients with Parkinson’s disease.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/effect-of-dual-task-as-rehabilitation-therapy-in-parkinsons-disease-in-the-updrs-iii/