Category: Parkinson's Disease: Non-Motor Symptoms
Objective: To perform and present a systematic review assessing the effects of exercise on pain in people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) (prospero registration CRD42019129154).
Background: Pain affects a large proportion of people with PD, contributing to self-reports of discomfort and disability. Currently, pain assessment and management is guided by expert opinion which includes exercise as a recommended treatment.
Method: Electronic databases (MEDLINE, AMED, CENTRAL, CINAHL, EMBASE and PEDro from their inception) will be searched to identify studies meeting the following inclusion criteria: participants with idiopathic PD; an experimental intervention where exercise is the main focus of the intervention (including structured exercise); a measure of the pain experience is reported. Pain will be the primary outcome and measures of pain will include; pain severity measures, pain interference measures, psychosocial aspects of pain (emotion and cognition), socioenvironmental domains of pain and quantitative sensory testing (eg pressure or thermal pain thresholds). Secondary outcomes will be; adverse effects such as injuries or exacerbation of pain symptoms and adherence to the exercise intervention. Separate analyses will be performed for trials comparing an exercise intervention with a no exercise control group and two exercise interventions. Further, separate analyses will be performed for trials reporting immediate effects (i.e. less than 2 weeks of intervention), studies reporting short-term effects (after an intervention of at least 2 weeks) and studies reporting long-term effects (at follow-up). Planned sub-group analyses may be undertaken to determine whether outcomes vary according to; mode, intensity or duration of the intervention, disease severity or pain severity.
Results: Searches have been completed and formal screening of the search results has commenced. Preliminary results will be presented.
Conclusion: This review will identify trials testing any exercise intervention with a pain experience outcome measure in people with PD. Results have the potential to inform shared clinical assessment and management decisions made by people with PD, clinicians and researchers.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
V. Nguy, L. Hassett, C. Canning, J. Elliott, N. Allen. The effect of exercise on pain in Parkinson’s disease: A protocol for a systematic review [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2020; 35 (suppl 1). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/the-effect-of-exercise-on-pain-in-parkinsons-disease-a-protocol-for-a-systematic-review/. Accessed November 8, 2026.« Back to MDS Virtual Congress 2020
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/the-effect-of-exercise-on-pain-in-parkinsons-disease-a-protocol-for-a-systematic-review/