Emotional Prosody Treatment in Parkinson's

Completed · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Parkinson Disease

In brief

This study investigates a treatment protocol which holds the potential to significantly improve communication and quality of life for individuals affected by Parkinson's disease (PD). Disorders of emotional communication are widely reported in PD and can negatively impact quality of life by increasing social isolation and decreasing independence. Individuals with emotional prosodic communication disorders are often perceived as depressed or unconcerned about others. This seeming negativity can cause difficulties in relationships, and increased feelings of stress and burden in caregivers which may result in earlier placement in an institutional care setting. This innovative treatment program could improve care for individuals with PD, as well as other individuals who may be affected by disorders of emotional prosodic communication (e.g., stroke or traumatic brain injury).

Key facts

Study ID

NCT01956266

Run by

VA Office of Research and Development

People needed

10

Starts

2013-10-01

Expected to finish

2017-05-31

Last updated by the study team

2019-11-18

Who can join

Age: 45 and older, up to 85. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Experimental subjects must meet the Brain Bank criteria (Gibb \& Lees, 1988) for idiopathic PD.
• All participants must:
• be between the ages of 45 and 85
• have at least a sixth grade education
• fluent in English
• The investigators will obtain information about participant's Parkinson's disease history from medical records including:
• age at onset
• current age
• gender
• handedness
• level of education
• side of the body initially affected
• information regarding subsequent clinical progression
• medications
• most recent Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) scores
• Hoehn and Yahr (H\&Y) (Hoehn \& Yahr, 1967) scores
• The investigators will include subjects with H\&Y Stages between 2 and 4
• Participants must be judged as having at least a mild level of affective prosodic deficit in pretreatment testing

You may not qualify if…

• Individuals will be excluded with other forms of Parkinsonism such as:
• multiple systems atrophy
• Lewy body dementia
• progressive supranuclear palsy
• Other exclusionary criteria will be:
• co-existing dementia (as indicated by score on Montreal Cognitive Assessment of below 26)
• neurological disease other than idiopathic PD
• major depression
• any other psychiatric illness
• chronic medical and neurological diseases other than PD (e.g., cardiac failure, renal disease, hepatic failure, stroke, or severe sensory deficits such as deafness or blindness (corrected visual acuity less than 20/50).

Where it is running

• North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System, Gainesville, FL — Gainesville, Florida, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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