Linguistic, psychometric validation and diagnostic ability assessment of an Italian version of a 19-item wearing-off questionnaire for wearing-off detection in Parkinson’s disease

Early DEtection of wEaring off in Parkinson disease: The DEEP study

Assessing the frequency of Wearing-Off (WO) in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients, and its impact on Quality of Life (QoL). METHODS: Consecutive ambulatory patients, who were on dopaminergic treatment for ≥ 1 year, were included in this multicentre, observational cross-sectional study. In a single visit, WO was diagnosed based on neurologist assessment as well as using the validated Italian version of a patient self-rated 19-question Wearing-Off Questionnaire (WOQ-19); WO was defined for scores ≥ 2. QoL was evaluated by the 8-item Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-8). RESULTS: 617 subjects were included, with a mean anti-Parkinson treatment duration of 6.6 ± 4.6 years, 87.2% were on lev…

ANODAL TRANSCRANIAL DIRECT CURRENT STIMULATION (TDCS) APPLIED TO THE MOTOR CORTEX AMELIORATES FREEZING OF GAIT IN PATIENTS AFFECTED BY PARKINSON’S DISEASE

Background: Progression of Parkinson’s disease (PD) is frequently characterized by the occurrence of freezing of gait (FOG), which generally does not improve with dopaminergic therapy and with current available surgical therapies. Recent evidences show that motor symptoms may be ameliorated by means of non-invasive brain stimulation techiniques in PD (transcranial current direct stimulation, TDCS; repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, RTMS). Objective: To investigate the efficacy of anodal TDCS in the treatment of FOG in PD. Excitatory anodal tDCS was applied unilaterally to the motor and premotor cortices controlateral to the most affected leg. Methods: randomized, double-blind, sh…