Effect of the Lee Silverman Voice Treatment BIG® on motor symptoms in a participant with progressive supranuclear palsy: A case report

ABSTRACT

Background

Although the Lee Silverman Voice Treatment BIG® (LSVT BIG®) improves motor symptoms in patients with Parkinson’s Disease, no reports exist for patients with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP).

Objective

To describe the effect of LSVT BIG® on the motor symptoms of a participant with PSP.

Case Description

The participant was a 74-year-old man with PSP. His goals were to improve limb movement, balance ability, and festinating gait over the 4-week LSVT BIG® program.

Outcomes

All assessments of limb movement and balance ability showed improvements after intervention for the limb and gait subsections of the PSP rating scale. Scores improved from 9 to 5, and 8 to 6, respectively for the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) Part 3, from 30 to 21 and for the Berg balance scale (BBS), from 45 to 50 points. The improvements in UPDRS Part 3 and BBS exceeded the minimum detectable change values (7–8 and 2 points, respectively). After intervention, improvements in festinating gait and rapid walking pace were noted on the UPDRS Part 3 (2 to 1 point) and 10-meter walk test (1.65 m/s to 1.10 m/s).

Conclusion

The intervention was effective for the participant but further studies with diverse populations are needed.

KEYWORDS:

• Progressive supranuclear palsy
• Lee Silverman voice treatment BIG®
• festinating gait
• case report
• motor symptom

Acknowledgments

We thank the staff of the department of rehabilitation at the Kawamura Hospital for their technical assistance and Editage (www.editage.com) for English language editing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.