Active clinical trials for "Parkinson Disease"

Parkinson's disease is a chronic progressive neurological disorder. Symptoms are tremor, slowness in movement, rigidity and postural instability. As the disease progresses and treatment with L-dopa is no longer sufficient, some patients may be treated with deep brain stimulation. When treated with deep brain stimulation, electrodes are inserted in the affected area of the brain and through stimulation, motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease are significantly reduced. During the first year of DBS treatment patients and spouses may experience changes in everyday life and illness trajectory posing new opportunities as well as new challenges. The purpose of the study is to develop an individualised and targeted nursing program to support patients and relatives manage changes and challenges in life the first three months after Deep Brain Stimulation. The intervention is expected to generate important knowledge that will serve as a foundation for the further development of a future nursing program.

The primary goal of this project is to gain a better understanding of whether and how levodopa (a common anti-Parkinson disease medication) alters postural motor learning in people with Parkinson disease. A secondary goal is to assess whether motor cortical excitability, measured via Transcranial magnetic stimulation, is related to postural motor learning. Participants with Parkinson disease will complete between 50 and 100 postural perturbations (via support surface translations), ON and OFF their dopamine replacement therapy (i.e. levodopa). Adaptation of responses to these perturbations will be tracked. Participants will also undergo transcranial magnetic stimulation to capture cortical excitability of the brain (in particular the motor cortex). Cortical excitability will be correlated to adaptation of stepping (i.e. postural motor learning) ON and OFF levodopa. Investigators will also capture postural motor learning and cortical excitability in age-matched healthy adults. Investigators hypothesize that dopamine will have a negative effect on postural motor learning, and the cortical excitability will be correlated to postural motor learning.

Patients with Parkinson's disease have low levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine. Dopamine is responsible for motor function and normal physical activity. Patients with Parkinson's disease typically suffer from tremors, rigid muscles, stooped postures, and walk with a shuffle. The drug levodopa acts as a replacement for dopamine and has been has been used effectively for over 30 years as treatment for Parkinsons disease. Because of its effectiveness, levodopa has been used to distinguish Parkinson's disease from other conditions that may resemble Parkinson's disease. Traditionally, levodopa has been given as a pill. In this study, researchers would like to inject levodopa directly into a vein (intravenous) in order to diagnose cases of Parkinson's disease. This method provides immediate results and allows doctors to adjust the dose of levodopa very carefully. Because the intravenous method of giving levodopa is less practical than oral medication, it is not an available alternative for the routine treatment of Parkinson's disease. However, it may be useful for faster diagnosis of the disease and for determining effective doses of oral medication.

This is an open-label, prospective post marketing surveillance study to be performed in Sweden. Only data of patients idiopathic PD should be documented, in whom the treating physician plans to initiate a pharmacotherapy with PPX ER independent of this observational study. The questionnaires (Morisky Medication Adherence Measure, patient preference scale, CGI-I, PGI-I) will be used to document routine care in a standardized way and thus ensure high validity of the observational data. As the degree medication adherence of patients is routinely evaluated by their physicians, as is patient preference and possible symptom improvement after initiation of a new therapy, the patient questionnaires will be used to standardise medical routine care and to ensure validity of observational data.

The purpose of this prospective, participant-blinded trial is to determine the changes in sleep architecture in a cohort of subjects who have undergone deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery for treatment of movement disorders such as moderate to advanced Parkinson's disease (PD), tremor, or dystonia. Our preliminary observational data suggest that unilateral subthalamic nucleus (STN) DBS improves subjective sleep quality in PD patients 6 months after the procedure. The cause of this improvement in sleep quality is unknown, and this study proposes the use of polysomnography (PSG) to test whether the improvement in sleep is independent of improvement in night-time mobility associated with DBS treatment of the motor symptoms of PD, tremor, or dystonia.

The purpose of this research is to determine whether repetitive sessions of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to the prefrontal cortex can enhance the cognitive, affective and motor functioning of those with Parkinson's Disease. In this study we will compare active tDCS with sham tDCS. Each subject will receive two consecutive weeks of stimulation (Monday through Friday). A battery of neuropsychological and affective tests will be administered throughout the duration of the study.

To determine patient satisfaction with group visits versus standard of care delivery for patients with Parkinson's disease.

To compare the effect of pramipexole on depressive symptoms in early and advanced PD patients To evaluate the course of depressive symptoms measured with UPDRS Part I (mentation, behavior and mood) and with HADS-D under pramipexole treatment To investigate whether improvement of depressive symptoms is linked to improvement in motor function (UPDRS Part III)

This study will be conducted in an observational multiple-cohort design aimed at acquiring clinical, treatment, health status, and economic data. Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) will be enrolled.

The underlying goal of this study is to assess 123-I IBVM SPECT imaging as a tool to assess cholinergic transporter binding in the brain of AD and PD research participants and age- and gender-matched healthy subjects.