Objective: To highlight the available assessment tools and to provide practical, experience-based recommendations for reliable assessment of freezing of gait (FOG).

Background: FOG is a mysterious, complex and debilitating phenomenon in Parkinson’s disease. Adequate assessment of FOG is a pre-requisite for managing the symptom, as well as for assigning participants within FOG research. The episodic nature of FOG, as well as its multiple clinical expressions make its assessment challenging.

Methods: We reviewed FOG assessment tools from history taking, questionnaires, lab and home-based measurements and examined how they account for the presence and severity of FOG, their limits and advantages. Their practicalities in clinical and research practice are highlighted.

Results: Available assessment tools consider FOG severity to be marked by one or a combination of the multiple clinical expressions of FOG including triggering circumstances, frequency, duration, response to levodopa, association with falls and fear of falling, or need for assistance to avoid falls.

Conclusions: To date, a unique methodological tool that encompasses the entire complexity of FOG is lacking. Combining methods should give a better picture of FOG severity, in accordance with the specific clinical or research context. Further development of any future assessment tool requires understanding and thorough analysis of the specific clinical expressions of FOG.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/the-practicalities-of-freezing-of-gait-assessment-methods/