In 271 Parkinson's patients, standardized instrumental movement tests and clinical rating scales improved after multidisciplinary complex in‑patient therapy, with high correlation between subjective and objective assessments.

The study provides objective evidence that multidisciplinary in‑patient care improves motor outcomes and supports using instrumental measures for monitoring and payer justification, but it offers limited mechanistic insight or direct leads for therapeutic discovery.

BACKGROUND: Performance of Parkinson's Disease Multidisciplinary Complex Therapy in specialized units is quite common in Germany. Data on the benefit of this hospitalisation approach in conjunction with standardised performance of instrumental tests are rare. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the outcome in 271 consecutively referred patients with Parkinson's disease. METHODS: Disease severity was scored in combination with execution of standardised instrumental procedures in after admission and before discharge. RESULTS: Rating scale scores and test outcomes of simple, repetitive and complex movement series execution improved. There were high correlation coefficients between the applied various evaluations at the two assessment moments. Computed differences of the instrumental test results between both valuation timepoints were weakly associated to each other. CONCLUSION: The used approach of combined subjective and objective evaluation mirrors the achieved benefit. This concept is suitable to convince payers on the positive effects of this kind of in-patient stays, which also reduces caregiver burden.