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NEUROLOGY 2009;73:475-478
© 2009 American Academy of Neurology
Historical Neurology

Jean-Martin Charcot and his vibratory chair for Parkinson disease

Christopher G. Goetz, MD

From the Department of Neurological Sciences, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Christopher G. Goetz, 1725 W. Harrison Street, Suite 755, Chicago, IL 60612 cgoetz{at}rush.edu

Vibration therapy is currently used in diverse medical specialties ranging from orthopedics to urology to sports medicine. The celebrated 19th-century neurologist, J.-M. Charcot, used vibratory therapy to treat Parkinson disease (PD). This study analyzed printed writings by Charcot and other writers on vibratory therapy and accessed unpublished notes from the Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris. Charcot lectured on several occasions on vibratory therapy and its neurologic applications. He developed a vibration chair for patients with PD after he observed that patients were more comfortable and slept better after a train or carriage ride. He replicated this experience by having patients undergo daily 30-minute sessions in the automated vibratory chair (fauteuil trépidant). His junior colleague, Gilles de la Tourette, extended these observations and developed a helmet that vibrated the head on the premise that the brain responded directly to the pulsations. Although after Charcot’s death vibratory therapy was not widely pursued, vibratory appliances are reemerging in 21st century medicine and can be retested using adaptations of Charcot’s neurologic protocols.

Disclosure: Author disclosures are provided at the end of the article.

Received January 20, 2009. Accepted in final form May 6, 2009.






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