Parkinson Disease May Be Treated With High-Intensity Exercises

Patients with Parkinson disease can participate in high-intensity treadmill exercises and may even experience some clinical benefits, according to a recent study.

The randomized controlled trial recruited 128 participants with idiopathic Parkinson disease who did not participate in moderate-intensity exercises more than 3 times per week and were not expected to need dopaminergic medication within 6 months after enrollment (mean age, 64 years; 57% male).
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Participants were randomly assigned to high-intensity treadmill exercises (n = 43), moderate-intensity treadmill exercises (n = 45) for 4 days per week, or a wait-list control (n = 40) for 6 months.

Safety, adherence to the prescribed heart rate for each exercise intensity, and exercise frequency of 3 days per week were assessed as feasibility outcomes. The clinical outcome included changes in Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale motor scores at 6 months.

Compared with participants in the usual-care group, participants in the high-intensity group experienced little to no changes in motor scores at 6 months. Additionally, the researchers found that only the high-intensity exercise group had reached the predefined non-futility threshold compared with the control group, while the moderate-intensity group did not.

Reported adverse musculoskeletal events were not severe.

“High-intensity treadmill exercise may be feasible and prescribed safely for patients with Parkinson disease,” the researchers concluded. “An efficacy trial is warranted to determine whether high-intensity treadmill exercise produces meaningful clinical benefits in de novo Parkinson disease.”

—Melissa Weiss

Reference:

Schenkman M, Moore CG, Kohrt WM, et al. Effect of high-intensity treadmill exercise on motor symptoms in patients with de novo Parkinson disease: a phase 2 randomized clinical trial [published online December 11, 2017]. JAMA Neurol. doi:10.1001/jamaneurol.2017.3517.