Educational Therapy in Parkinson's Disease (PD): A Non-pharmacological Interventional, Multicentric, Randomized Controlled Trial.

Parkinson's disease is multidimensional disorders characterized by motor and non-motor symptoms such as behavioral and psychological symptoms, autonomic disturbances and other non-motor symptoms. A multidisciplinary and comprehensive approach, based on the chronic care model, is considered the best way to manage motor and non-motor symptoms of the disease, although this model of care is still not standardized and previous trials showed conflicting results.

The study planned to enrol 40 advanced PD patients and related caregivers for each investigational site. This was a single-blind,multicentric, prospective, randomized study comparing two arms: an intervention group undergoing a structured educational program associated to standard care and a control group who solely continued with traditional medical care.

The educational program consisted of six thematic meetings of 3 hours each, which a 15-minute interval every hour. Each meeting had a key topic and was divided in a teaching session and in a practical session with individual training of both, subject and caregiver. Every lecture was held by a movement disorders specialist with particular expertise in each field of discussion and the content of each lessons (slides, flyers, questionnaires) was adapted to fit the audience.