Treatment For Freezing In Parkinson’s

Negative Consequences Of Freezing

Freezing episodes limit the mobility of a person with PD and may contribute to reduced socialization and a lower quality of life. In addition, freezing can be dangerous and is associated with falls in people with PD. Approximately 38% of people with PD fall each year, and freezing increases the risk of falls as freezing occurs without warning. Falls can cause additional health problems, including broken bones or head injury.1,2

So What Circuits Arent Working

• Out of Sync Limbic System and Cognition regulated by the basal ganglia as well as the supplementary motor area, cerebral cortex and more recently supraspinal locomotor network and being referred to a circuitopathy
• Support to this circuitopathy is getting greater recognition by studies showing that FOG is correlated with limited dual-tasking ability and inability to set-shift attention among motor, limbic, and cognitive networks.
• In addition, freezing can occur during speech, handwriting, and other actions aside from gait, suggesting that the dysfunction occurs in generalized neural networks not solely related to ambulation.
• The limbic system is the part of the brain involved in our behavioural and emotional responses, especially when it comes to behaviours we need for survival: feeding, reproduction and caring for our young, and fight or flight responses

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Passive Remote Patient Monitoring Of Physical Activity: Opal Actigraphy

In addition to active assessments, sponsors seek ways to capture continuous real-world patient activity measures via remote passive monitoring. Clarios Opal® actigraphy solution quantifies daily physical activity to complement QOL & ePRO data for any trial. Combining objective measurements from wearable sensors with qualitative ePRO creates a comprehensive picture. Data is collected passively from patients wearing a single Opal sensor on their wrist.

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Database Management And Quality Control

Our research team will take effective measures to ensure the quality of research. Particularly, we will adopt the double entry method in order to ensure quality of data. The statistician will compare the two databases through the program, and in case of inconsistencies in the input results, he/she will check to identify the error. After final confirmation, the database will be saved and kept by a special person. Any future changes to the database shall be agreed upon, in writing, by the clinical study director, statistician, and data manager.

How Can Freezing Be Treated

Speak with your Parkinsons specialist or PDNS about the best treatment for your Freezing. Your doctor might feel that a change to your medication regime may help to deal with Freezing. There are many options available now, from long acting Dopamine Agonists to Enzyme Inhibitors which can allow the levodopa to work more smoothly and effectively, which would promote continuous delivery of dopamine to the brain.

Speak with a Physiotherapist for tips and tricks to overcome Freezing and avoid falling.

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Freezing Of Gait In Parkinson’s Disease

This short webpage explains what freezing of gait is, why it occurs, and treatment. It also offers 10 tips to prevent freezing or get ‘unstuck.’ Finally, there is a discussion of walkers that can prevent injury due to falls when freezing episodes are severe and the future of treatments for freezing of gait.

Ways To Reduce Parkinsons Freezing Of Gait

Do you sometimes feel like your feet are stuck to the floor or your hips are glued to your chair, despite your best efforts to move them?

This symptom, called freezing, has been seen in 30-67% of people diagnosed with Parkinsons, with a higher rate of incidence in later stages.

While everyone has unique freezing patterns, some common triggers include turning in tight spaces, walking through doorways, walking in narrow hallways or crowded places or changing walking surfaces .

As soon as you notice freezing symptoms creeping up on you, its important to address them so you can prevent them from worsening over time.

The first line of treatment is often dopaminergic medications that aim to keep you in an ON state for longer. However, evidence suggests there is a cognitive component of freezing that medication and deep brain stimulation do not address effectively.

This is why the best long-term treatment option for Parkinsons freezing is non-pharmaceutical, non-invasive and focuses on retraining your brain for success.

Here are six actions you can take to help minimize your freezing of gait.

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What Does It Look Like

Parkinsonian gait is one of several motor symptoms that are the hallmarks of Parkinsons disease, including slowness of movement and tremors. Motor symptoms in Parkinsons disease come from a lack of control over movements and difficulty initiating muscle movements.

The exact features of Parkinsonian gait can differ from person to person, but there are some very common features that most people have. These include:

• taking small, shuffling steps
• moving more slowly than expected for your age
• festinating, or when your strides become quicker and shorter than normal, which can make it look like youre hurrying
• taking jerky steps
• moving your arms less when walking
• falling frequently
• freezing of gait

People with Parkinsons disease can sometimes lose the ability to pick up their feet, which makes them stuck in place. Freezing of gait can be triggered by environmental factors, such as walking through a narrow doorway, changing directions, or walking through a crowd. It can also be triggered by emotions, especially anxiety or feeling rushed.

Freezing of gait can happen anytime. However, it often occurs when you stand up. You might find that youre unable to pick up your feet and start moving.

Predictors Of Freezing: When Are People Living With Parkinsons Most Likely To Freeze

Freezing is common among Parkinsons patients, and is most often seen in those with long-standing symptoms.

A survey of 6,620 people living with Parkinsons disease found that 47% reported experiencing freezing regularly. Further analysis of people who reported freezing showed

• It was significantly associated with a longer disease duration and a more advanced stage of the disease.
• Episodes were more likely in men than in women and
• Finally, people who reported tremor as their main symptom were likely to also report freezing less frequently.

The results underline the necessity to develop appropriate countermeasures against this phenomenon, which is widely known to cause significant impairment of patients quality of life and as our data also showed may cause traffic accidents in licensed patients.

A previous study in 2001 has also established

• Risk factors associated with freezing where found to be at the early stages of the disease 1. the absence of tremor and 2. PD symptoms being mostly as a gait disorder early in the disease experience.
• The development of freezing over the course of the illness was also strongly associated with the development of balance and speech problems and less so with the worsening of bradykinesia , and was not associated with the progression of rigidity .

A current study rigorously compared studies and found that strong evidence supports the following risk factors for freezing

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The 5s Method Consists Of The Following 5 Sequential Steps:

If you are a Thrive patient, be sure to ask your therapist for your 5S magnet if you dont already have one.

Balance And The Brain

Difficulties with balance and walking are linked to the brain changes that take place with PD. For people who dont have PD, balance is automatic, a reflex. But Parkinsons affects the basal ganglia . To compensate, the brain assigns another brain area an area used for thinking to take over. The thinking part of the brain, mainly the frontal cortex, cant control balance automatically. The result: for many people with PD, balance becomes less automatic.

This means that when people experience freezing and fall, they cant adjust their balance automatically. Taking small steps to try and regain balance can make things worse, because it involves shifting weight with each step. The brain changes from PD inhibit their ability to take a big step to catch their balance and avoid a fall. For some, the drug levodopa can help prevent freezing, but does not improve balance.

A person whose balance is less automatic must pay more attention while walking. For everyone, walking slows down when were talking and thinking slows down when were walking. This is called the dual-task cost and its higher in people with PD. That tells us that people with PD are using more attention and more cognitive control for balance and gait.

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Is Freezing Related To The Intake Of Dopaminergic Medication

Some people with Parkinsons have on and off periods, when they switch from being able to move when their medication level is higher to being unable to move without difficulty when their medication level is low . Many people notice that freezing is worse when their medication level is low, when they are off. But freezing is not the same as being on or off.

Subthalamic Oscillatory Activity And Connectivity During Gait Freezing

To investigate the role of the STN neural activity in gait freezing we compared the STN oscillations between walking and ongoing freezing episodes. We first studied power changes in low frequency and in the -frequency band of the two STN and did not find any differences during gait freezing in comparison to walking . We also assessed the duration of -burst and did not find a difference between walking and gait freezing . We finally investigated the subthalamic interhemispheric coupling in the -band and showed an increase of -coupling followed by a reduction in the synchronization between the two STN during gait freezing. However, this change did not reach statistical significance .

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Treating Freezing Of Gait For People With Parkinsons

Freezing of gait episodes often occur when a person is under-medicated and can improve with increased amounts of their PD meds, usually carbidopa/levodopa. However, as mentioned earlier, the brain abnormalities that lead to freezing of gait are very complex, so giving more dopaminergic medication is only part of the solution. In fact, some people have what is referred to as ON freezing. This means that freezing of gait episodes occur even when other PD symptoms are well treated with their medication regimen.

Cueing, or the introduction of an external sensory stimulus to facilitate movement, has been identified as a way to break a freezing episode. Terry Ellis, PhD, PT, NCS, Director of the APDA National Rehabilitation Resource Center at Boston University, and Tami DeAngelis, PT, GCS, compiled this list of cues that can be used to get out of a freezing episode:

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Parkinson’s & Freezing Of Gait

During his time at the Stanford Movement Disorders Center Brent Bluett, DO, researched indicators for who is most likely to develop freezing of gait in PD. In this 45-minute Lunch with Docs episode Dr. Bluett provides an overview of FOG, shares tips for breaking a freeze, treatment options , summarizes the results of his research and other research into FOG. He spends about half the webinar answering questions.

Analysis Of Primary And Secondary Outcome Measures

Analysis of categorical variables will be performed using the Pearsons 2 or Fishers exact tests, whereas continuous variables will be analyzed using a Students t test or appropriate non-parametric methods. All datasets will be analyzed at 95% confidence interval and will be tested by double-sided statistics. Data will be expressed as means ± standard deviation . Data will first be tested for normality and homogeneity of variance prior to analysis, and if the normal distribution is satisfied, a t test will be used to compare 2 groups, whereas analysis of variance with LSD or SNK methods will be used for multiple comparisons. Datasets that are not normally distributed will be analyzed using a rank sum test.

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Coping With Freezing In Parkinson’s Disease

Claudia Chaves, MD, is board-certified in cerebrovascular disease and neurology with a subspecialty certification in vascular neurology.

Around half of people who have Parkinson’s disease experience freezinga temporary inability to move that occurs suddenly and without warning. Such episodes are short-lived, lasting from a few seconds to up to several minutes.

Parkinson’s freezing can affect nearly any part of the body and disrupt nearly any activitychewing for example, or writing. However, it most often occurs when someone is walking, causing them to feel as if their feet are glued to the ground even though the upper part of their body is still mobile. This sometimes is referred to as freezing of gait and can have repercussions ranging from a brief disruption in stride to an increased risk of falling that can lead to broken bones and other injuries.

The exact physiological cause of freezing in Parkinson’s has yet to be determined. What is known is that it’s often associated with lulls in the effectiveness of medication, particularly among people who have mid-to-late stage disease. There also are a number of common triggers of freezing while walking, such as changing direction, approaching a doorway, or navigating a crowded area. Although Parkinson’s freezing can have a negative impact on a person’s quality of life, there are simple and effective ways to manage it.

Future Therapeutic Strategies For Freezing Of Gait In Parkinsons Disease

• ForeFront Parkinsons Disease Research Clinic, Brain and Mind Centre, School of Medical Sciences, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia

Freezing of gait is a common and challenging clinical symptom in Parkinsons disease. In this review, we summarise the recent insights into freezing of gait and highlight the strategies that should be considered to improve future treatment. There is a need to develop individualised and on-demand therapies, through improved detection and wearable technologies. Whilst there already exist a number of pharmacological , non-pharmacological and surgical approaches to freezing , an integrated collaborative approach to future research in this complex area will be necessary to systematically investigate new therapeutic avenues. A review of the literature suggests standardising how gait freezing is measured, enriching patient cohorts for preventative studies, and harnessing the power of existing data, could help lead to more effective treatments for freezing of gait and offer relief to many patients.

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What Freezing Is Like For My Dad

Like many Parkinsons patients, my dad notices that he usually only freezes when hes not on his medication. It usually happens while hes moving through doors: When you pivot youre worried about losing your balance. Thats why we shuffle our feet and take baby steps initially. Once Im moving Im fine, he says.

Since hes worried about maintaining balance while navigating, its possible that theres a connection between fear and freezing. Continuous motion seems to bypass the risk of freezing, while shifting motion types can present challenges.

What Can Be Done About It

Some tricks people use include:

• Humming or whistling their favorite song
• Bending their knees up and down or marching
• Visualizing themselves
• Touching a body part

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