By Maria Gabriella Ceravolo (Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, Politecnica delle Marche University, Ancona, Italy)
Unlocking the full potential of rehabilitation could transform the daily lives of people living with Parkinson’s.
Our latest findings from the INTENSO study, now published in NPJ Parkinson’s Disease (link below), provide further insight into which patients benefit most from rehabilitation. This historical cohort study explored how rehabilitation intensity influences non-motor symptoms, an area with a profound impact on quality of life yet few effective treatment options.
About the INTENSO Study
INTENSO evaluated 48 people with Parkinson’s disease, retrospectively assigned to either a High-Intensity Training (HIT) or Low-Intensity Training (LIT) programme. Group allocation was based on total therapy exposure: 1,800 minutes for HIT and under 900 minutes for LIT. All participants completed a structured, multidisciplinary outpatient programme featuring aerobic exercise, balance and dual-task training, flexibility and strengthening work, and occupational therapy.
High-Intensity Rehabilitation Improves Non-Motor Outcomes
Only the high-intensity group showed clinically meaningful improvements in non-motor symptoms immediately after treatment, with benefits persisting at six months’ follow-up. By contrast, those in the low-intensity group experienced a progressive worsening of non-motor symptoms over time.
Additional benefits of high-intensity training included:
- Greater independence in daily living
- Reduced severity of motor symptoms
- Reduced freezing of gait both immediately and at follow-up
- Enhanced functional stability over six months
Multivariate analyses identified rehabilitation intensity and baseline disability as the primary independent predictors of improvement in non-motor outcomes.
Why This Matters for Personalised Care
These results reinforce that intensity, not just programme composition, is critical to rehabilitation effectiveness. They also reveal that baseline disability levels shape individual outcomes. This finding supports PREPARE’s mission to deliver more personalised and responsive care.
How INTENSO Informs the PREPARE Pilot Study
Building on these findings, the PREPARE project will test whether a prediction algorithm can help clinicians determine:
- Which patients are most likely to benefit from an intensive multimodal rehabilitation cycle
- When such an intervention should be offered, based on an individual’s changing clinical profile
- How rehabilitation intensity and modality can be matched to each patient’s motor and non-motor phenotype
In the PREPARE pilot, we will prospectively apply the same multidimensional and intensive rehabilitation model used in INTENSO. We aim to evaluate whether a decision-support algorithm enhances treatment allocation, prevents under-treatment, and optimises resource use within an expanding population of people with Parkinson’s disease.
With INTENSO and PREPARE, we are not just measuring improvement… we are redefining what’s possible in personalised Parkinson’s care!
Please read the full paper here:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12181338/pdf/41531_2025_Article_1035.pdf
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Posted by: Nayara Güércio (Trilateral Research)