Active clinical trials for "Parkinson Disease"

The purpose of the research is to determine the effects of a high-fiber nutritional supplement (HFS) on the bacteria, viruses, and fungi that live in different regions of the body in those with Parkinson's disease (PD). We will compare the bacteria, viruses, and fungi of those with PD to those without PD (healthy controls). We will also examine the effects of transplanting stool from humans into laboratory mice with or without Parkinson-like pathology to understand how the microbiome influences the brains of animals. We can use this information to get a better understanding of how changing the microbiome might help humans.

The use of simulators to retrain driving skills of patients with stroke, Parkinson's disease (PD), or multiple sclerosis (MS) is very limited because of cost, space required, and incidence of simulator sickness in high fidelity simulators. The Principal investigator recently developed a low cost low fidelity portable driving simulator (PDS). In this pilot study, the study team will (1) determine the ease of use and occurrence of simulator sickness while operating the low fidelity PDS in a clinic setting and (2) the efficacy of the low fidelity PDS to reproduce the benefits from retraining impaired driving skills of stroke survivors in a high-fidelity simulator. Participants: 30 participants, separated according to neurological condition including stroke, PD, or MS, will be randomly allocated to either the PDS or fixed-base high-fidelity simulator training. Each participant will undergo a pre-training evaluation, five hours of designated training and a post-training assessment, similar to the pre-training evaluation. Data will be analyzed according to study aims. The investigators hypothesize that the simple set up of the PDS will make it easier to use and better decrease the incidence of simulator sickness that typically leads to stopping therapy than the high-fidelity simulator. The investigators hypothesize that improvements in lane maintenance, adherence to speed limits, reaction to traffic lights, and overall reaction time after training using the PDS will not be significantly different from improvements observed after training using the high-fidelity driving simulator.

This trial aims to understand the mechanism and to test whether transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) combined with transcranial ultrasound (TUS) (tDCS+TUS) combined with physical therapy (PT) will induce significant therapeutic effects in postural instability in Parkinson's disease (PT) patients. The investigators designed a double-blinded, placebo controlled, randomized study to investigate the effects of 2 weeks of TDCS+TUS on postural instability in PD patients receiving PT. (Followed by biweekly sessions for 2 more weeks in Phase II)

Parkinson's disease (PD) affects approximately 6.5 million people around the world and it is ranked as the second most common age-related neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer disease. US have reported 800,000 PD patients in 2016, the highest number of reported PD patients in the world while UK has the lowest number of PD cases i.e. 100,000. With a rise of 2.3 million cases in 2026, an approximate annual growth rate of 2.52% is predicted globally. According to Pakistan Parkinson's society, approximately 450,000 Pakistanis were affected with PD. The age-specific prevalence of PD in Pakistan was found to be high in 70 to 79 years of age with males being more affected as compared to females. Parkinson's disease is a neurological condition, characterized by tremors, rigidity, and stiffness in the body, along with bradykinesia, walking and balance problems. Poor balance is one of the major and most disabling characteristics among Parkinson patients. Freezing of gait (FOG) and postural instability is one of the major cause of fall and loss of independence among PD patients whereas cognitive dysfunction is one of the common non-motor symptoms affecting 20 to 57% of PD patients. Among recent technological advancements in neurological physical therapy, virtual reality (VR) games have become an area of interest for researchers. Despite advances in the rehabilitation of PD, evidence regarding the effects of visual biofeedback therapy on Parkinson patients is still scarce. Only few studies have studied the effects of visual biofeedback therapy on balance in PD patients, but as per knowledge of the researcher there is no study published on effects of visual biofeedback therapy on FOG and cognition among Parkinson patients in Pakistan. Therefore, the present study is aimed to assess the effects of biofeedback balance training using a balance board on balance, FOG and cognition in patients with Parkinson disease.

Twenty-five participants with PD utilizing the Medtronic Percept PC DBS system will be enrolled for this project and complete a single bout of both FE and VE. The 150-minute experimental session will be completed in the OFF antiparkinsonian and Off-DBS state.

This pilot randomized control trial (RCT) aims to develop a Voice-activated Intelligent Personal Assistance (VIPA) user protocol and study its feasibility and preliminary efficacy among 60 People with Parkinson's disease (PWP). The research questions are: Phase 1: What components should be included in the VIPA user protocol community-dwelling PWP? Is it feasible to implement the VIPA intervention in the PD population? 3 focus group interviews and 3 cognitive interviews will be held to formulate the VIPA user protocol. 5 healthcare and information technology experts will be invited to rate the relevancy of the formulated protocol and the item content validity index will be calculated by the researcher. Phase 2: What is the preliminary efficacy of VIPA intervention on SOC and psychosocial well-being? Can such effect sustain for 4 weeks? What is the users' experience on the VIPA intervention? 60 participants will be randomized into the intervention group (IG) and control group (CG). During the 8-week intervention period, IG participants will receive the following materials: User protocol Designate VIPA 30-minute VIPA training on day 1 Weekly technical support phone calls. CG participants will receive usual care, no intervention will be provided to CG participants, and they will continue their daily life during the intervention period. The researcher will compare both groups to study the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of the VIPA on the participants' psychosocial well-being and sense of coherence.

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of physical activity on mitochondrial function in skin fibroblasts in patients with Parkinson's disease.

The crude prevalence rate of Parkinson's disease in Upper Egypt governorates ranging from 557-436/100,000 (Assiut and Qena governorates respectively) which was one of the highest prevalence of PD around the world .Parkinson's disease patients report having complaints of disrupted sleep anywhere from 60 to 98 %. This is one of the most common non-motor symptoms, and it is a substantial contributor to the diminished quality of life associated with Parkinson's disease. PD patients have poor sleep maintenance and fragmentation (Comella 2007, Khedr et al. 2013). Khedr et al (2013) found that; 78.6% out of 112 patients with PD had sleep disturbances with the commonest complaint being difficulty getting to sleep at night or staying asleep (46.4%) followed by vivid nightmares and night terrors (27.7%). In other studies, 80-90% of PD patients have had sleep difficulty with virtually all patients having symptoms at some time in the course of the disease .

The present multicenter randomized study investigates whether the management of patients with parkinsonism by a nurse specialist (case-manager) can significantly improve patients' quality of life over 12 months, compared to control patients managed with the standard-of-care process. Participants will be evaluated with clinical scales testing quality of life, motor and non-motor symptoms, and the number of unscheduled hospital access throughout the course of the study.

The investigators aim is to study neuropsychiatric symptoms and underlying abnormalities in resting-state fMRI in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) suffering from neuropsychiatric fluctuations, to enhance the understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying neuropsychiatric symptoms.