ABSTRACT
COVID-19 was first identified in China in late 2019 and spread globally, originating a pandemic. To limit the spreading of the virus, many countries, including Italy, introduced social distancing measures and limited human movement. The Italian government declared a lockdown of the whole country lasting about two months, and the introduced restrictive rules heavily impacted patients with chronic neurological diseases because of the reduced access to healthcare and community support services. In Parkinson's disease, studies confirmed lockdown restrictions increase levels of psychological distress, impose limitations on physical activities, and cause a lack of clinical assistance. This study aims at investigating the impact of the pandemic during and beyond the lockdown period in such patients using an online survey. A total of 387 total patients accessed the survey and were asked about their personal experiences during and after lockdown. The results show a significant impact on people's lives even months after lockdown restrictions were lifted, with a substantial and durable worsening in different aspects of daily life, heavily influenced by impaired access to health services-particularly physical therapies, including personal physical activity-and readily available clinical counselling, with an overall observation of worsening symptoms control. These aspects should be carefully considered in the assessment of global health care strategies to overcome the current pandemic and its broader effects.
ABSTRACT
Telehealth, by definition, is distributing health-related services while using electronic technologies. This narrative Review describes the technological health services (telemedicine and telemonitoring) for delivering care in neurodegenerative diseases, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's Disease, and amyotrophic lateral Sclerosis, among others. This paper aims to illustrate this approach's primary experience and application, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses, with the goal of understanding which could be the most useful application for each one, in order to facilitate telehealth improvement and use in standard clinical practice. We also described the potential role of the COVID-19 pandemic to speed up this service's use, avoiding a sudden interruption of medical care.