Session Information
Date: Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Session Title: Parkinsonisms and Parkinson-Plus
Session Time: 1:45pm-3:15pm
Location: Agora 3 West, Level 3
Objective: To investigate the impact of timed exposure to bright light (TEBL) on improving gait function in medicated PD patients with dyskinesias (PD+DYS) and without dyskinesias (PD-DYS).
Background: Gait impairment and related motor abnormalities progress over time, leading to progressively greater disability. Currently, there is no effective treatment for controlling the progression of gait impairment, and associated complications such as falls and freezing of gait. Recent clinical studies have pointed to the utility of TEBL for improving motor symptoms such as tremor in patients with PD. However, these studies have predominantly assessed changes in the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) scores, and have not utilized objective/quantitative biomechanical measurements of changes in gait and other motor symptoms. We hypothesized that TEBL improves kinematic measures of gait (stride and step length, percent stance time, and stride duration) in both groups but has a greater effect in PD patients with dyskinesias.
Method: In the pilot phase of this ongoing study, two subjects in each group were tested. Participants in each cohort were randomly assigned to one of two testing conditions: two weeks of TEBL or two weeks of Placebo. During the pre- and post-TEBL (or Placebo) assessment sessions, participants were asked to walk on a fully instrumented treadmill and kinematic measures of gait (stride and step length, percent stance time, and stride duration) were measured.
Results: Our preliminary data showed that two weeks of TEBL can result in a significant increase in step length in PD+DYS patients while it has less effect on non-dyskinetic patients. More importantly, TEBL significantly decreased stride duration, a Levodopa-resistant gait parameter, in both groups.
Conclusion: The novel finding of this pilot study was that timed exposure to bright light which is often used for reversing circadian rhythm abnormalities and normalizing melatonin release patterns significantly improved Levodopa-resistant gait parameters in patients with PD.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
L. Alibiglou, T. Ruopp. The effects of timed exposure to bright light in improving the gait patterns of patients with Parkinson’s disease – A pilot study [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2019; 34 (suppl 2). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/the-effects-of-timed-exposure-to-bright-light-in-improving-the-gait-patterns-of-patients-with-parkinsons-disease-a-pilot-study/. Accessed May 15, 2025.« Back to 2019 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/the-effects-of-timed-exposure-to-bright-light-in-improving-the-gait-patterns-of-patients-with-parkinsons-disease-a-pilot-study/