"Cueing" for Levodopa-induced Dyskinesias in Parkinson's disease

Abstract

We describe the case of an early-onset Parkinson's disease (PD) patient, suffering from a severe and unusual dyskinetic gait pattern, earlier described as "Silly walk." On presentation, the 58-year-old patient showed a painful, bizarre dyskinetic gait disorder, resulting in a significantly impairment of her social life. We developed an individual conservative training method for the patient, using "Cueing mechanisms," well known for treatment of Freezing in PD, to overcome her dyskinetic gait pattern. An impressive improvement was seen after the use of visual and acousting cues. We, therefore, conclude that it might be important for PD patients to recognize these specific movement abnormalities and start early with individualized training methods. Moreover, especially for "Silly walk" individuals, "Cueing" strategies can be an important new basis of conservative training methods for dyskinesia.