Clinical Feasibility of Mental Practice for Gait Ability Improvement of Parkinson Disease Patients: ABA Single Subject Design

Purpose: This study was carried out in order to verify actual applicability of mental practice in the clinical field by applying it to Parkinson disease patients. Methods: : The number of subjects was three and they were aged between 65 and 69. One year or longer period has passed since they were diagnosed with Parkinson disease. The baseline A consisted of three sessions. After the baseline period, the researcher applied mental practice to the subjects once per day, for 20 minutes per each time, for 10 sessions. The no-intervention withdrawal phase was composed of three sessions. Outcome measures 10 meter walking test(10MWT), timed up and go (TUG) test, 8-figure walk test (8FWT). Results: All results indicated that 10 MWT, TUG, F8WT was improved when compared mental practice(B) to pre base line(A). base line(A) after mental practice intervention(B) was also sustained. Conclusion: As a result of the mental practice, we can know that it helps straight gait, dynamic balance, curved gait to improve.