Active clinical trials for "Parkinson Disease"

The overall objective of this study is to observe the effect of group Vocal performance training and performance experience on patients' reported symptoms and quality of life. The effectiveness of PD medications varies significantly in different patients depending on their symptoms. By using music-based interventions to improve symptoms that may be inadequately treated by medications, the investigators hope to improve quality of life in PD patients. "Parkinsonics: A controlled study of group singing for quality of life and voice outcomes in Parkinson disease" (PD) is a controlled crossover behavioral intervention study of once weekly choral classes for patients with idiopathic PD (progressing toward a group performance) and once weekly discussion/support group meetings.

This study evaluates the effect of iron chelation as a therapeutic strategy to slow the progression of Parkinson's disease. Half of participants will receive the deferiprone to 15 mg / kg twice daily morning and evening (30mg / kg per day), while the other half will receive a placebo. The treatment lasts nine months.

This study is a clinical trial in patients with Parkinson's disease, of a drug called Exenatide which is already licensed for the treatment of patients with Type 2 Diabetes. There have been several groups that have confirmed that Exenatide has beneficial effects on nerve cells when tested in the laboratory, that raises the possibility that Exenatide may slow down or stop the degenerative process of Parkinson's disease. In an open label trial in patients with Parkinson's disease who self administered the drug for 1 year, we have previously shown that the drug is well tolerated and shows encouraging effects on the movement and non-movement aspects of the disease, even 2 months after patients stopped administering the drug. The next step is therefore to formally evaluate whether Exenatide really is a potential "neuroprotective" drug, i.e. stops the nerve cells dying in Parkinson's disease, by conducting a double blind, placebo controlled trial.

Safety study of AADC gene transfer (VY-AADC01) in subjects with Parkinson's disease.

The study design was a parallel-group randomized trial with equal randomization. Recruitment and enrollment were conducted between June 2012 and January 2013. At base-line, clinical, cognitive and functional data was collected. Afterwards, the participants were randomly allocated to either the REHACOP group or the Control group. During 3 months the intervention with REHACOP program took place and at follow-up patients were again re-evaluated to evaluate the changes in clinical, cognitive and functional measures. Post-treatment assessment (finished by June 2013) was performed within the first week after completing the intervention.Optional enrollment in pre- post neuroimaging will also allow us to look at changes in the brain. Finally, longitudinal follow-up at 18 months with neuropsychological and neuroimaging assessements was also performed. Objective: To examine the efficacy of an integrative cognitive training program (REHACOP) to improve cognition, clinical symptoms and functional disability of patients with Parkinson disease (PD).

This study is designed to assess the effect of APOKYN treatment in rapid and reliable improvement of motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD) subjects suffering from delayed or unreliable onset of levodopa (L-dopa) action.

Persons with Morbus Parkinson commonly develop gait and balance disorders leading to dependence, loss of mobility and a high risk of falling. This study investigates the effectiveness of a sensorimotor treadmill intervention to improve walking and balance abilities in persons with early stages of Parkinson's disease. The sensorimotor treadmill training is conducted on a special treadmill device which is challenging the participants by small oscillations. This intervention, which is supposed to simulate walking on natural, uneven surfaces, is compared to a conventional treadmill training. Hypothesis: Sensorimotor treadmill training leads to larger improvements in walking and balance abilities as compared to conventional treadmill exercise.

By doing this study, the investigators hope to learn provide safety data that can be used to generate a larger phase III clinical trial. If successful, it would promote the development of a new treatment for PD in which patients are able to provide their own tissue as a source of a supportive environment for the injured and dying cells and thereby possibly stopping the progression of the illness or even improve the symptoms of PD. The purpose of this research is to gather information on the safety and feasibility of nerve graft implantation is. The results of this study will be shared with the University of Kentucky, Center for Clinical and Translational Science (group providing financial support for the study) and other federal agencies, if required. The overall goal of this research is to develop a novel, regenerative treatment strategy for idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD) that is safe, cost effective and widely available to patients.

This is a Phase I clinical trial of the FDA approved drug Glycerol Phenylbutyrate to see if phenylbutyrate can increase the removal of alpha-synuclein from the brain into the bloodstream. Alpha-synuclein forms abnormal protein deposits in dopamine neurons and is believed to cause the death of brain cells, leading to Parkinson's Disease.

The appearance of postural instability and gait disorders is a major turning point in the evolution of Parkinson's disease (PD). These axial symptoms are usually unresponsive to L-Dopa and represent a severe impairment for the patients due to frequent falls and reduced outside mobility. There is no effective pharmacological treatment available for these symptoms, and their pathophysiology is not well known : it is currently assumed that non-dopaminergic brainstem lesions participate to axial symptoms in PD. Surgically, these patients cannot benefit from high frequency deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) since this operation tends to even aggravate axial symptoms unresponsive to L-Dopa in some patients. A dysfunction of the pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN) might be at the origin of these axial symptoms, since the PPN participates in the maintenance of posture and motion in primates. In PD patients, recent reports have suggested that low frequency stimulation of the PPN may equally improve gait and posture. However, these results are debatable due to methodological limitations, insufficient clinical evaluation and uncertain anatomical targeting. Thus, our aim is to propose a low frequency PPN stimulation to six advanced PD patients according to the usual criteria for STN DBS who are, however, unsuitable for this operation due to gait and posture disorders. We will perform a randomized, double-blind and cross over design (two months periods with and without DBS randomly assigned to each patient). The targeting will be allowed by a a three-dimensional and deformable atlas of the basal ganglia fusioned with the stereotaxic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of each patient. Evaluations will comprise 1 month before surgery and in "Off" and "On" stimulation condition: clinical motor assessment in both "Off" and "On" drug state, including cardinal parkinsonian signs, gait and balance gait initiation physiological evaluation cognitive and behavioral testing If our hypothesis is confirmed, low frequency PPN stimulation may well represent a substantial improvement of our therapeutic options for advanced PD patients suffering from debilitating gait and posture disorders unresponsive to L-Dopa.