Active clinical trials for "Parkinson Disease"

This pilot study aims to evaluate the feasibility of Managing Fatigue: The Individual Program (MFIP) in people living with Parkinson's disease. The Managing Fatigue Program, a six-week, self-management energy conservation course, focuses on strategies that help people with fatigue to make changes to save and use their energy to accomplish their daily activities. Several studies have adapted and evaluated different delivery formats of the program in conditions similar to Parkinson's disease, demonstrating that the Managing Fatigue Program is effective in reducing fatigue impact, depression, sleep problems, and improving quality of life, participation and self-efficacy. While this program has been tested in people living with many chronic conditions there has been only limited inclusion of people living with PD. This feasibility study, using a mixed-methods approach, nested in a pilot randomized control design, will evaluate the feasibility of the Individual Managing Fatigue Program from the perspectives of people with Parkinson's disease, and prepare for a full-scale randomized controlled trial (RCT). In this study, Managing Fatigue: The Individual Program (MFIP) will be delivered using videoconferencing. This feasibility study will use a mixed-methods approach, nested in a pilot two-armed randomized controlled design. Using a concurrent mixed-method design, we will collect two types of data (qualitative and quantitative) simultaneously, expanding our understanding of the feasibility of the program. Data will be collected using feasibility questionnaires developed by the research team, standard outcome measures, and group discussions. Multiple recruitment strategies will be used to recruit a convenience sample of 50 participants (25 in each group) from across the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. Eligible participants will be randomly assigned to either the control or experimental group using sealed envelopes. The study outcome measures will be administered three times during the study; pre-test, post-test after 6 weeks, and at three-month follow-up. The results of this study will determine whether it is feasible to do a full-scale RCT in the future. If the known beneficial effects of the Managing Fatigue program extend to the PD population, this research will be the evidence needed to support the integration of this novel solution into the care of people with PD.

To evaluate the tolerance and safety of FLA tablets in healthy volunteers. To evaluate the pharmacokinetics of FLA tablets in healthy volunteers. Provide basis for dosage setting for follow-up clinical research.

The primary objective of this protocol is to examine [18F]MNI-1126 as a tool to assess synaptic density loss.

The aging Veteran population, together with high exposure to Agent Orange or other herbicides during military service, has made diseases such as Parkinson's disease (PD), currently affecting more than 80,000 Veterans, a major health issue in the Veterans' health system. Mobility and cognitive limitations are a common problem in PD and are associated with significant disability, increased fall risk, reduced quality of life, and increased caregiver burden. While less is known about its benefit on cognition, physical therapy has proven to be an effective treatment to mitigate mobility limitations, though the response to rehabilitation interventions is highly variable. The proposed research will inform the investigators' understanding of the impact of certain genetic profiles associated with learning impairments on motor and cognitive benefits in response to gait rehabilitation, and will provide an important foundation for more personalized and improved gait rehabilitation programs for different subgroups of PD patients.

Safe and independent mobility at home and in the community requires control of walking while accomplishing other functional tasks. A hallmark of healthy control of walking is automaticity, defined as the ability of the nervous system to successfully coordinate movement with minimal use of attention-demanding executive resources [1]. Recent evidence indicates that walking disorders are often characterized by a shift in the locomotor control strategy from healthy automaticity to compensatory executive control. This shift is potentially detrimental to walking performance as an executive control strategy is not optimized for locomotor control and it places excessive demands on a limited pool of cognitive reserve. Here, the investigators hypothesize that walking automaticity, as measured by the prefrontal cortex activity while walking, will be improved by donepezil (a cholinesterase inhibitor).

Using a within-subject cross-over design, we will include 20 patients with Parkinson disease (PD) and peak-of-dose dyskinesia. Patients will be studied after withdrawal from their normal dopaminergic medication. On two separate days, each patient will receive off-line, effective (high-intensity) or ineffective (low-intensity) 1 Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) of the presupplementary motor area (preSMA) before functional magnetic resonance (fMRI). Immediately after the patient will perform a Go/No-Go task during fMRI in the the OFF state for 9 minutes. Then the scan is paused and the patient will receive 200 mg fast-acting oral levodopa and undergo whole-brain task-related fMRI at 3 Tesla until peak-of-dose dyskinesia will emerge. During task-related fMRI, patients has to click on a mouse with their right hand (Right-Go), left hand (Left-Go), or no action (No-Go) in response to arbitrary visual cues. The patients will also be tested for different aspects of impulsivity using neuropsychological questionnaires and computerized tests.

The aim of this study is to explore the potential of Ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) to slow down the progression of Parkinson's Disease (PD) in a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, "proof of concept" study. The primary objective of the study will be to determine the safety and tolerability of this drug in patients with PD. Participants will be recruited form a cohort of patients who have been diagnosed with PD within the last 3 years and are potentially suitable for this study. There is strong evidence from previous research and the work carried out by other groups that UDCA rescues the function of the mitochondria (mitochondria are the "powerhouse" of the cell) in PD patient tissue and other models of PD. This suggests that UDCA may slow down the worsening of PD. UDCA has been in clinical use for the treatment of liver disease (primary biliary cholangitis) for over 30 years. The investigators therefore know that it is safe and well tolerated in patients with liver disease but the investigators don't know yet whether this is also the case in patients with PD. Furthermore, the dose used for patients with liver disease (15 mg/kg) is not high enough for UDCA to get into the brain. The investigators therefore need to double the dose to 30 mg/kg. This higher dose was also safe in clinical trials for liver disease, but is currently not used routinely in clinical practice.

People with Parkinson's disease use compensatory strategies to overcome typical gait disturbances. These strategies rely on attentional mechanisms, however people with Parkinson disease suffer of decline in cognitive function. Therefore, the current study aims at exploring brain engagement and focus of attention process during walking with these compensatory strategies, in people with Parkinson disease. Such exploration would assist in understanding the feasibility of the compensatory strategies in daily lives of people with Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's disease and essential tremor are chronic movement disorders for which there is no cure. When medication is no longer effective, deep brain stimulation (DBS) is recommended. Standard DBS is a neuromodulation method that uses a simple monophasic pulse, delivered from an electrode to stimulate neurons in a target brain area. This monophasic pulse spreads out from the electrode creating a broad, electric field that stimulates a large neural population. This can often effectively reduce motor symptoms. However, many DBS patients experience side effects - caused by stimulation of non-target neurons - and suboptimal symptom control - caused by inadequate stimulation of the correct neural target. The ability to carefully manipulate the stimulating electric field to target specific neural subpopulations could solve these problems and improve patient outcomes. The use of complex pulse shapes, specifically biphasic pulses and asymmetric pre-pulses, can control the temporal properties of the stimulation field. Evidence suggests that temporal manipulations of the stimulation field can exploit biophysical differences in neurons to target specific subpopulations. Therefore, our aim is to evaluate the direct neurophysiological effects of complex pulse shapes in DBS movement disorder patients. This will be achieved using a two-stage investigation: stage one will study the neural response to different pulse shapes using electroencephalography (EEG) recordings. Stage two will study the neural responses to different pulse shapes using intra-operative local field potential (LFP) recordings. This study only relates only to the collection of EEG and LFP recordings in DBS patients. The protocol does not cover any surgical procedures, which already take place as part of the patient's normal clinical care.

The purpose of this study is to test whether Rifampin affects blood levels of istradefylline in humans. Rifampin could possibly decrease istradefylline levels.