The prevalence of Parkinson′s disease (PD) in industrialized countries is 0.3% in the general population. This study evaluated the effects of virtual reality training (VRT) on motor and cognitive recovery in patients with PD.

Subjects were 20 patients with PD, with an average age of 69.4 years, randomly assigned to a control group or a VRT group. All patients were assessed with a neuropsychological battery, including tests of cognition and affect. Those in the VRT group used the BTS-Nirvana (BTS-N), which creates three dimensional multisensory and interactive simulation, to allow the patient to interact with virtual scenarios. Each treatment session lasted 30 minutes, with three sessions per week for eight weeks.

Those in the VRT group demonstrated greater improvements in cognitive function, including executive and visuospatial abilities, as compared to the control group. Compared with the control group, significantly greater improvement was noted in scores on the Mini-Mental State Exam (P＝0.014), the Frontal Assessment Battery (P<0.001), the WEIGL (P＝0.015), the Addenbrooke Cognitive Examination (ACE)- Revised (P<0.0001), the ACE-R Attention and Orientation subtest (P<0.001), the ACE-R Memory subtest (P＝0.034), the ACE-R Fluency subtest (P<0.001), the ACER Language subtest (P＝0.016) and the ACE-R Visual-Spatial subtest (P<0.0001)．

This small study suggests that rehabilitation using virtual reality could be valuable for the improvement of cognition and behavioral outcomes of patients with Parkinson Disease.