Effectiveness of Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (LSVT)-BIG for Neurological Diseases Other than Parkinson’s Disease: Mini Review

TL;DR

This mini review explores the effectiveness of LSVT-BIG, a therapy originally for Parkinson’s, in treating other neurological diseases like stroke and Huntington’s.

Contribution

The paper is the first to systematically review LSVT-BIG’s application and effectiveness for non-Parkinson’s neurological conditions.

Findings

LSVT-BIG showed positive effects on physical function and motor control in non-Parkinson’s neurological diseases.

Four studies focused on stroke, and four on other diseases like Huntington’s and progressive supranuclear palsy.

Future high-quality, large-sample studies are needed to confirm LSVT-BIG’s effectiveness.

Abstract

Background: Lee Silverman Voice Treatment-BIG (LB) was developed for Parkinson’s disease patients to improve patients’ movement amplitude and accuracy through large movements and enhance movements through self-awareness and recalibration. This study aimed to review studies on LB for neurological diseases other than Parkinson’s disease and examine its potential as an intervention tool. Method: The main search databases included Google Scholar, PubMed, and ScienceDirect. ‘Neurological disease’, ‘LSVT-BIG’, ‘Treatment or Rehabilitation’, ‘Intervention’, and ‘Therapy’ were used as search keywords until December 2024, and eight articles were finally selected. Results: As a result of analyzing eight studies, there were four studies on stroke (all conducted by occupational therapists) and four studies on other diseases, including two studies on progressive supranuclear palsy, one study on idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus, and one study on Huntington’s disease (all conducted by physical therapists). Conclusions: LB had a positive effect on improving physical function and overall motor control in patients with neurological diseases other than Parkinson’s disease, indicating its potential as an intervention tool. In the future, studies that have high-level evidence-based study designs and complement small sample sizes are needed to demonstrate the effectiveness of LB.

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