Effect of Neurofeedback Training on Postural Stability and Fall Risk in Patients with Parkinson's Disease

When Parkinson's disease progresses, complications such as impaired balance, can affect patient's quality of life. Results have indicated that complementary program processes such as physiotherapy can reduce these complications while the brain and its waves are ignored. This study aimed to verify the effect of neurofeedback training on postural stability and fall risk in patients with Parkinson's disease. This was an experimental research with pre-, post-test method and control group. 16 patients were selected through purposive sampling and were randomly divided to two experimental and control groups. The experimental group participated in 8 sessions of actual neurofeedback training as well as control group participated in 8 sessions of sham neurofeedback training. Before and after the training, the pre- and post-test of postural stability and fall risk were administered using biodex system. The mean scores of fall risk and the postural stability improved significantly after the intervention in experimental group (P < 0.001), while there were no significant changes among control group in fall risk (P = 0.450) and the postural stability (P = 0.750) scores. Our results showed that the neurofeedback training can be used to control the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, especially postural stability and fall risk.