Objective: The objective of this review is to update evidence on benefits of tDCS on gait speed and freezing of gait (FOG) for PD patients

Background: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the most well-known neurological disease, characterized by degenerative brain changes in substantia nigra with formation of abnormal proteins called Lewy bodies. The common clinical signs include bradykinesia, 4-6 Hz resting tremor, muscular rigidity and postural instability. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) was being explored to act as substitute intervention to reduce motor complications in PD patients. However, results from recent reviews varied between possibly short-term motor outcome improvements with insufficient evidence to determine the effects of tDCS.

Method: Relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were collected via searching on Online Literature Databases (MEDLINE & PubMed). Keywords of ”Parkinson’s disease”, ”Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation”, ”tDCS”, and ”gait” were used in research strategy. Only RCTs published between 2010-2020 and written in English were included. The included articles were assessed with ‘Risk of bias’ tool presented in Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions.

Results: Nine RCTs involved a total of 209 participants. Outcome measures being assessed included: gait speed, walking time, functional mobility, and freezing of gait.

Conclusion: Current evidence supports tDCS with short term benefits on improving gait speed and FOG in PD patients. Combining tDCS with gait training are related to prolonged benefits in gait outcomes. Long term effectiveness of tDCS remain inconclusive due to lack of long term follow up.

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