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EDITORIAL COMMENTARIES |
| Training persons with parkinson's disease |
Carolinas Rehabilitation, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
M A Hirsch
Carolinas Medical Center, Charlotte Institute of Rehabilitation, 1100 Blythe Blvd, Charlotte, NC 28203, USA; mark.hirsch@carolinashealthcare.org
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
The traditionally held belief about the treatment of patients with neurodegenerative conditions is that they cannot benefit from exercise training.2 For people with a diagnosis of Parkinsons disease, it was feared that exercise would increase the underlying muscle tone. Exercise might worsen the condition and so was to be avoided.
The paper by Niewboer et al1(see p 134) challenges this assumption. It is groundbreaking in several important aspects. Firstly, with 153 participants, the study is the largest trial on gait training in Parkinsons disease. Results from previous studies have been criticised for their small sample sizes. Owing to its sample size, statistically, the Niewboer et als study is the most powerful trial to date. Secondly, the validity of previous studies has been questioned because of methodological flaws. In the present single-blind, randomised clinical trial, blinded assessors conducted the testing, reducing bias that is known
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