Dysphagia Treatments in Parkinson’s Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Neurogastroenterology and Motility
Cheng, I., Sasegbon, A., et al. (2023).
Neurogastroenterology and Motility, 35(8), e14517.
This systematic review and meta-analysis investigates the effects of any dysphagia treatment (e.g., oromotor exercises, video assisted swallowing treatment, sensory stimulation, brain stimulation treatments, pharmacological treatments) for adults with Parkinson's disease. Only treatments within the scope of SLP practice are included in the conclusions.
No funding received
From database inception to April 2022
Randomized control trials with either parallel group or crossover designs
9
<div>Overall, dysphagia treatments were found to have a medium statistically significant effect on swallowing related outcomes in adults with Parkinson's disease (ES= 0.65), however many of these treatments were outside of SLP scope of practice (e.g., acupuncture). SLP specific findings included:</div>
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<li>One trial examining video-assisted swallowing treatment and one trial examining neuromuscular electrical stimulation had an effect size of 1.13 and 1.50, respectively.</li>
<li>Medium to large, nonsignificant effects were found for expiratory muscle strength training and pharyngeal electrical stimulation.</li>
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<div>Given the overall paucity of evidence and small sample sizes, further research is needed.</div>
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