Parkinson’s Disease and Vertigo

Question:

My wife has Parkinsons’s and since having an incident of vertigo leans backwards, especially when stressed. She was treated for the vertigo but what can be done about the balance problem?

Answer: By Meredith Harris, PT, DPT, EdD

Balance is often disturbed after an episode of vertigo, especially for individuals with Parkinson’s Disease. Your wife should see a physical therapist who specializes in balance problems, who can evaluate her balance and determine if the problem is related to her Parkinson’s Disease. The physical therapist can then develop and initiate a treatment plan.

Balance problems have numerous causes including weakness of key muscles used to maintain balance, loss of awareness of the body position in space, loss of ability to maintain the center of gravity, faulty messages from the inner ear, visual limitations, and much more.

Once the physical limitations are identified, the physical therapist will also evaluate for environmental factors that may be increasing the challenge of maintaining her balance. A treatment plan may include posture activities, strengthening of the key balance muscles, balance control in different positions, walking activities, and much more.

A variety of tools to maximize balance recovery may be used such as rocker boards, thick foam, and even high-tech electronic games like the Wii Fit System by Nintendo.

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Learn more about Home issues

Learn more about Vertigo issues

What is Vertigo?
Vertigo is the sensation of spinning. Even when being still, you may feel like you are moving, or that the room is moving around you. You may also experience nausea, vomiting, sweating, and abnormal eye movements.
If the vertigo is accompanied by double vision, difficulty speaking, a change in alertness, arm or leg weakness, [...]

Biographical Information

Physical therapist and American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) member Meredith H. Harris, PT, DPT, EdD, is an associate professor at Northeastern University. She recently became a Fulbright Specialist in education with a sub-specialty in public/global health. At Northeastern University, she teaches the capstone physical therapy project course to engage faculty and students in research and community service learning to forward the goals of research in physical therapy and accomplish the mission of Bouve College and the university to address urban and global health issues. She has been active in APTA for many years, serving most recently on the ethics task force and on APTA’s awards committee. Her personal research interests are in fall prevention and the use of technology to measure balance in older adults, exercise to address health issues in childhood and adult obesity, and the use of exercise in HIV. She was a member and chair of APTA’s committee on cultural competence and was charged to address the question of health disparities in physical therapy. She is currently a member of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) subcommittee charged to review proposals in rehabilitation. She is a former member and chair of the National Center of Medical Rehabilitation Research (NCMRR) advisory board of NIH. She is also an active member of her community on Cape Cod, serving as a board member of the Thornton Burgess Society and the altar guild of St John’s Episcopal Church in Sandwich, Massachusetts.