ReviewFrontiers in neurology
Advancing rehabilitation in Parkinson's disease through virtual reality: a narrative review.
Review in Frontiers in neurology. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
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Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Virtual reality (VR) is increasingly explored in Parkinson's disease (PD) rehabilitation, yet the clinical evidence remains heterogeneous. Objective: To provide an integrative narrative synthesis of the neurophysiological rationale, VR modalities (immersive, semi-immersive, and non-immersive), and motor/non-motor outcomes associated with VR-based rehabilitation in PD. Methods: Narrative review of peer-reviewed studies published between 2010 and 2025. Fifteen PD + VR rehabilitation studies meeting eligibility criteria were included in the qualitative synthesis. Mechanistic, non-PD, pre-2010, or otherwise non-eligible studies were discussed only as contextual/supporting evidence. Findings were synthesized narratively, and methodological limitations were examined through a structured critical appraisal. Objective: Across small and methodologically heterogeneous samples, VR-based rehabilitation was associated mainly with improvements in balance and gait-related outcomes, including Berg Balance Scale (BBS) scores, Timed Up and Go (TUG) performance, Functional Gait Assessment (FGA), stride length, gait velocity, and walking distance. Selected studies also reported gains in upper-limb function and balance confidence. Effects on freezing of gait and tremor were variable. Cognitive and executive effects were less established than motor findings and should be considered preliminary. Conclusion: VR appears promising as an adjunct to conventional rehabilitation in PD, particularly for gait, balance, and motor-cognitive training, but the certainty of evidence remains moderate to low. Broader mechanistic interpretations should be considered plausible explanatory frameworks rather than demonstrated therapeutic effects. Priorities for future research include protocol standardization, blinded assessment, improved safety reporting, sham/yoked comparator designs, responder profiling, and evaluation of scalable home-based and AI-adaptive platforms.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.