TY  - JOUR
T1  - The Impact of Tai Chi and Qigong on Non-motor Symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease: A Scoping Review of Randomized Controlled Trials 
AU  - Liu, Zhaoyang
AU  - Yang, Derong
AU  - Smirnova, Irina V.
AU  - Liu, Wen
JF  - Future Integrative Medicine
VL  - 
IS  - 000
SN  - 2835-6357
SP  - 
EP  - 
Y1  - 2026-07-10
DO  - 10.14218/FIM.2026.00012
UR  - https://www.xiahepublishing.com/2835-6357/FIM-2026-00012
AB  - Background and objectives 
Non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, including sleep disturbance, cognitive impairment, depression, and anxiety, are common and often undertreated, yet their responsiveness to mind-body exercises remains unclear. This scoping review evaluated the currently available evidence on the effects of Tai Chi and Qigong interventions on non-motor symptoms in patients with Parkinson’s disease.
Methods
We searched six databases (PubMed, Google Scholar, EMBASE, CINAHL, Web of Science, and PEDro) through February 28, 2026, for randomized controlled trials (RCTs). We included English-language RCTs that evaluated the effects of Qigong and Tai Chi interventions on non-motor outcomes in Parkinson’s disease and excluded non-RCTs, review articles, and protocol articles. We were predominantly interested in the following non-motor outcome measures: cognition, depression, anxiety, fatigue, and sleep quality.
Results
This review identified 18 RCTs that met the inclusion criteria, including nine Tai Chi studies and nine Qigong studies. Most of the reviewed studies were of high quality according to the PEDro scale, but the small sample sizes limited our analysis to identifying trends in outcomes. A strong trend toward a beneficial effect was found for sleep quality and cognition, a moderate trend toward improvement was found in depression, anxiety and quality of life, and weak or unclear effects were found for other non-motor symptoms such as fatigue. Several studies also had high dropout rates.
Conclusions
Although these studies suggest that Tai Chi and Qigong may improve sleep quality and cognition, the evidence supporting their benefits in alleviating other non-motor symptoms is generally weak, primarily because of small sample sizes. The heterogeneity in methodologies across the reviewed studies and high dropout rates in some studies are significant limitations of previous RCTs.