What should people with ALS look out for when choosing a therapy practice?

With ten people affected per 100,000 inhabitants, ALS is a relatively rare disease, meaning that specialization in ALS cannot be assumed given the large number of therapy practices (physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy). Nevertheless, when searching for and selecting a therapy practice, it makes sense to find out whether there is a therapy practice with experience in the treatment of ALS patients in the accessible region.

Outpatient partners or self-help groups can help to identify and contact specialized practices. If the search for an ALS-specialized therapy practice was not successful, it is important to ensure that the practice in question has neurological expertise. This criterion is particularly important when choosing a physiotherapy practice, as physical therapy takes place across a broad specialist spectrum. For example, some physiotherapy practices specialize in sports medicine, trauma surgery or orthopaedics.

The orientation of sports medicine and orthopaedic therapy centers is usually not optimally suited for the treatment of ALS patients (individual exceptions are possible). Certain neurological symptoms that can be treated with physiotherapy (e.g. spasticity) do not occur in orthopaedic diseases, meaning that the relevant practices have little experience in treating these symptoms. The therapeutic assessment of disease progression and the orientation of therapy in the palliative phase of ALS is also to be expected primarily in neurologically oriented therapy practices.

Overall, when choosing a therapy practice, it is important to find out whether the physiotherapy practice is familiar with the treatment of neurological patients. In the case of occupational therapy and speech therapy, it should primarily be assumed that there is experience with neurological diseases, as both forms of therapy focus on training and working with neurological diseases.