Medisinsk Yoga til personer med Parkinson

Abstract

Parkinson's disease and Parkinsonism is a characteristic movement disorder caused by the failure of the basal ganglia. There is no cure in for Parkinson's disease, but it offered medication and physical therapy to slow the disease and treat the symptoms. Because there is no curative treatment of the disease, so it appears that the use of alternative therapies is higher in this population. Therefor it is a market from other providers offering treatment to people with Parkinson's disease. Medical Yoga is one of these providers. They claim to be health based, but is not a part of the traditional medical system in Norway. Purpose: The purpose of the study was to collect experience knowledge about how people with Parkinson's disease experienced to participate in medical yoga group in one year. Alternative therapies are part of the treatment offer to Parkinson's disease, as they often make use of. In addition, research shows that physical therapists often integrates alternative therapies in their clinical practice in the treatment of people with Parkinson's disease. It will on this basis be interesting to look at how people with Parkinson's experience attending one of these alternative therapies. Materials and Methods: It was conducted semistructured interviews of three people with Parkinson's disease who had attended to medical yoga group in one year. Analysis: It was used a tape recorder to collect the data, and the material was transcribed and analyzed according to the principles of qualitative methodology. Results: This study highlights the importance of controlled breathing in therapy, training in a group with others in the same situation, the environments impact and instructors' role. The study's results indicate that people with Parkinson's disease have the benefit of working together with breathing, physical exercises and body awareness to achieve a more agile and manageable body. Controlled breathing exercises can be used to influence the reticular formation activity and thus body stress state, which is very relevant for individuals with Parkinson often rigid and stiff as a consequence of the disease. The informants' descriptions of exercising in a group with others in the same situation gave insights showing that diagnosis specific groups can have benefits on several different levels. By having diagnosis specific groups the therapist can tailor a program that is adapted to the pathology. These are insights that are relevant for people with Parkinson's and others with impaired sense of agency, or disturbances in body schema.