479 - Virtual Reality as A Rehabilitation Modality for Parkinson’s Disease: A Literature Review

Objectives: To assess the effectiveness of virtual reality (VR) as a rehabilitation tool in patients living with Parkinson’s Disease (PD), and compare its outcomes to current treatment modalities.

Design: A search was performed on PubMed using the following keywords: “Parkinson’s”, “Virtual” and “Reality,” which identified a variety of clinical trials and meta-analyses conducted over the past 10 years. 16 studies were selected which assessed outcome measures with sufficient power to provide accurate information treatment efficacy. Preferred outcome measures included the Berg Balance Scale (BBS), stability, tremor improvement, quality of life, and gait.

Results: All 16 studies reviewed found that the use of VR in treatment plans either provided similar or superior outcomes compared to treatment modalities not utilizing VR. One study found that while outcome measures were not statistically significant versus the control, there was a significantly decreased number of falls recorded after VR implementation. It was found that VR can lead to an improved BBS score, a standard for monitoring the progression of balance in PD patients.

Conclusions: Current literature supports the implementation of VR as an effective rehabilitation tool for patients diagnosed with PD. In all selected studies, VR demonstrated equivalent or superior outcomes when compared to interventions that did not utilize VR. Even the studies that reported VR as having equivalent outcomes noted improvement in other prognostic indicators such as fine motor skills and number of falls. Although the findings have been positive, it’s important to note the field is still evolving and more research is needed to fully understand its long-term efficacy. Researchers are encouraged to look deeper into specifics such as the optimal duration and frequency of these VR sessions, along with its use in different rehab settings. Physiatrists should begin considering the use of VR as an adjunctive tool to improve functionality in this patient cohort.