Amplitude and Rate of Intrinsic Feedback During Treadmill Training for Parkinson's Disease

Wilfrid Laurier University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Treadmill; Parkinson's Disease

Treatments: Behavioral: regular treadmill walking; Behavioral: magnitude treadmill group; Behavioral: rate group

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01987557

MDRC

Details and patient eligibility

About

Treadmill training has been shown to be beneficial for reducing motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD). The mechanisms for the therapeutic effects of treadmill training remain unknown. However, specific types of intrinsic feedback generated from muscle spindles (detect changes in length of muscle) and golgi tendon organs (detect muscle force) seem to be an important factor for achieving the reductions in motor scores. This study will compare a treadmill program that generates a high rate of intrinsic feedback to a treadmill program focused on generating a high magnitude of intrinsic feedback.

Enrollment: 48 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 40 to 79 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• diagnosis of Parkinson's disease
• must be able to walk unassisted for 10 metres

Exclusion criteria

• cardiovascular disease/history of stroke
• Dementia
• lower body injury that would be worsened by repetitive walking

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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48 participants in 3 patient groups, including a placebo group

Treadmill Intervention 1: Rate Group

Experimental group

Description:

Participants in this condition will walk with a cadence (steps per minute) that is approximately 35% faster than comfortable walking pace. In this condition, participants will maintain a step length that is similar to that of their comfortable walking pace.

Treatment:

Behavioral: rate group

Magnitude treadmill group

Experimental group

Description:

In this condition participants will walk on a treadmill with weights on their ankles to elicit a greater magnitude of instrinsic feedback from force sensitive golgi tendon organs

Treatment:

Behavioral: magnitude treadmill group

regular treadmill walking

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

participants will walk at a comfortable self-selected pace on a treadmill

Treatment:

Behavioral: regular treadmill walking