Benefícios do exercício cognitivo-motor sobre as funções executivas de pacientes com doença de Parkinson: um ensaio clínico controlado

Abstract

Introduction: Executive functions have been increasingly studied in Parkinson's disease (PD) due to interference that they generate in the routine and social conviviality of patients. Faced with such accomplished we investigated the effects of an exercise program applied individually and in groups on the executive functions of PD patients. Methods: twenty-three subjects were allocated into three groups and subjected to individualized exercises (G1, n=7) group exercises (G2, n=8) or follow-up (G3, n=8). The evaluation involved the Classification of test Cards from Wisconsin and the Raven Colored Progressive Matrices, evaluated at the beginning and after 6 months. The statistical procedures consisted in the application of the single and multiple analyses of variances for repeated measures, under 5% of significance. Results: The findings indicated similar behavior of groups in the Wisconsin test (p=0.246; ƞ 2 ƿ=0.753; statistical power: 57.44%), although individual analyses reflect a tendency of improvement of G1 and G2 regarding G3. The Raven test showed significant benefit of the therapy on the executive functions of the subjects (p=0.032; ƞ 2 ƿ=0.292; statistical power: 66.04%), with paired comparisons reflecting similarities of benefits of G1 and G2 (p=0.351; ƞ 2 ƿ=0.067; statistical power: 14.60%). Conclusion: PD patients undergoing 6 months of exercises showed improvement in executive functions when compared to controls. The similarity of the results between G1 and G2 should be focus of new studies, in order to elucidate the influence of social networks on cognition of patients.