Parkinson's Disease Multidisciplinary Complex Therapy (PD-MCT): appreciation of its current function for the treatment of people with Parkinson's disease in Germany and the needs of future development.

The inpatient Parkinson's Disease Multimodal Complex Therapy (PD-MCT) is a specialized therapeutic concept for people with Parkinson's disease (PD), that is increasingly applied with great success in Germany. It provides a core element of the provision of care for the more than 400,000 PD patients in Germany. In this expert review, we describe the basic elements of PD-MCT in Germany with its structural features, treatment team, therapeutic process and contents. The most recent data on the core neurologic value of PD-MCT are presented with its effect sizes and influencing factors. In detail, eight observational studies have demonstrated relevant effectiveness, with an average improvement of 7.8 points on the Movement Disorder Society Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale, Part III. Expert considerations of a PD-MCT target population are depicted as well as its additional values including multidisciplinary assessment and care, differential diagnosis and consideration of comorbidities, patient and caregiver education, improvement of nutrition, polypharmacy and therapeutic drug monitoring. The review concludes with a viewpoint on the possibilities for optimization and the future needs for PD-MCT.