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- Published on: 10 November 2020
- Published on: 10 November 2020Vibration therapy for Parkinson's disease: another lesson from Charcot
We read with great interest the article by Macerollo et al. entitled “Non-invasive intervention for motor signs of Parkinson’s Disease: the effect of vibratory stimuli.”[1] The authors evaluated the use of a wearable device called the "Emma Watch" that produces a constant vibratory stimulus (200 Hz) to the wrist with frequencies of 20 bpm or 60 bpm in terms of motor function of the arms of 16 patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD).[1] Motor performance was assessed through three different tasks: a nine-peg hole test, a STYAR tracing task, and a SPIRAL tracking test.[1] The authors found that patients with PD who used the device with 200 Hz peripheral vibration modulated by 60 bpm as they carried out these tasks performed better in terms of speed and precision.[1] The final conclusion was that vibrotactile stimulation can improve motor function in patients with PD.[1] It is important to comment that the authors did not discuss their results in terms of other studies in the literature, including one systematic review published in 2014 [2] and another with a meta-analysis published in 2020. [3] In these studies, vibratory stimulation in patients with PD was generally seen to yield positive results with regard to balance and gait. [2,3] From a historical point of view, the pioneering and seminal work of Jean-Martin Charcot, who used a vibrating chair to treat patients with PD, should also be noted.[4,5]
1. Macerollo A, Holz C, Cletheror D, et al. Non-invasiv...
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None declared.