Sensory Electrical Stimulation Cueing May Reduce Freezing of Gait Episodes in Parkinson's Disease

Freezing of gait (FoG) is a movement abnormality that presents with advancing Parkinson's disease (PD) and is one of the most debilitating symptoms of the disease. The mainstay of nonpharmacological management of FoG is typically through external cueing techniques designed to relieve or prevent the freezing episode. Previous work shows that electrical stimulation may prove useful as a gait guidance technique, but further evidence is required. The main objective of this study was to determine whether a "fixed" rhythmic sensory electrical stimulation (sES) cueing strategy would significantly (i) reduce the time taken to complete a walking task and (ii) reduce the number of FoG episodes occurring when performing the task.

9 participants with idiopathic PD performed a self-identified walking task during both control (no cue) and cueing conditions. The self-identified walking task was a home-based daily walking activity, which was known to result in FoG for that person. A trained physiotherapist recorded the time taken to complete the walking task and the number of FoG episodes which occurred during the task. Data were analyzed by paired t-tests for both the time to complete a walking task and the number of FoG episodes occurring.

sES cueing resulted in a reduction in the time taken to complete a walking task and in the number of FoG episodes occurring during performance of this task by 14.23 ± 11.15% (p=0.009) and 58.28 ± 33.89% (p=0.002), respectively.

This study shows a positive effect of "fixed" rhythmic sES on the time taken to complete a walking task and on the number of FoG episodes occurring during the task. Our results provide evidence that sES cueing delivered in a "fixed" rhythmic manner has the potential to be an effective cueing mechanism for FoG prevention.