Pain and Autonomic Symptoms in Parkinson's Disease and Atypical Parkinsonisms: Identification of Predictive Patterns of Rehabilitation Outcome and Evaluation of the Impact on Quality of Life

2% of the population over 65 is affected by Parkinson's disease (PD) or parkinsonism. This represents a significant burden on the health service in countries where the elderly represent 1/5 of the general population. In recent years there has been increased attention on the presence of non-motor disorders in PD patients. Among these, pain and autonomic symptoms are more frequently present and contribute to the worsening of disability and quality of life of the affected patient.

How much the presence of pain and autonomic symptoms can affect the rehabilitation outcome and how much the rehabilitation treatment itself can improve the painful or autonomic symptomatology is not known, but rehabilitation has an important role in the management of diseases where there are no real treatments capable of cure or slow down the neurodegenerative process.

In the Maugeri Clinical Scientific Institutes, patients with Parkinson's disease or parkinsonism are hospitalized or followed as outpatients and a personalized rehabilitation setting is ideal for being able to evaluate the patient in a sufficiently wide time frame to be able to appreciate significant changes in clinical parameters.

The greater knowledge of the impact of the different types of pain and of the domains involved in the autonomic dysfunction will help the clinician to better manage the patient's disability and will contribute to the definition of specific rehabilitation strategies aimed to improve the patient's quality of life.