Patients' fall records as an aid in designing and assessing therapy in Parkinsonism

Performance of Parkinson patients in a laboratory setting often gives little indication of their real-life behaviour. This is particularly the case for patients who fall. Two such patients were asked to record the time and location of every fall on maps of their apartments before and during their participation in a trial of physiotherapy designed to improve mobility. These fall diaries provided both valuable insight for understanding and addressing their problems and documentation of decreased falling following therapy.