Active clinical trials for "Parkinson Disease"

The purpose of this study is to use a brain imaging method called Pittsburgh B (PIB) Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Vesicular Cholinergic Transport (VAT) PET to determine dementia subtypes in patients with Parkinson disease (PD). The ultimate goal of this project is to be able to identify individuals with PD who are at risk of developing dementia, and to distinguish the underlying cause of dementia.

The NIH grant has funded the development of a physiological brain atlas registry that will allow us to significantly improve the data collectioin and use of physiological data into a normalized brain volume. This initially was used to improve DBS implants for Parkinson's Disease, Dystonia, Essential Tremor, and OCD, but now includes data acquired during all stereotactic brain procedures.

The purpose of this study is to test the performance of the AID-P across 21 sites in the Parkinson Study Group. Each site will perform imaging, clinical scales, diagnosis, and will upload the data to the web-based software tool. The clinical diagnosis will be blinded to the diagnostic algorithm and the imaging diagnosis will be compared to the movement disorders trained neurologist diagnosis.

In this study, the investigators aim to find a biomarker of Parkinson's disease. This is done using imaging scans called Positron Emission tomography (PET), Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT), and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). The findings will provide a deeper understanding of the brain changes in Parkinson's disease. More importantly, this study will help with the discovery and development of new medications aiming to delay progression of PD symptoms.

Study Rationale: Older adults who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ+) have worse health than non-LGBTQ+ older adults. They and their care partners face greater barriers to getting healthcare and support from friends and family. This is because of lifelong stigma, discrimination, and isolation often separated from their families. Parkinson disease (PD) is a disease that usually appears in older age, so there may be many LGBTQ+ elders with PD, but there is currently no information on how people with PD who are LGBTQ+ are coping with their disease and aging. This study will begin to clarify their needs. Hypothesis/Research Question: What are the experiences and perspectives of LGBTQ+ people living with PD, their care partners, and physicians managing people with PD? Study Design: The investigators will interview 20 people with PD, half who identify as LGBTQ+ and half who are not. The investigators will also interview their care partners and physicians who treat people with PD. From the responses to the interview questions, investigators will create a survey that will be sent to people across the country. Impact on Diagnosis/Treatment of Parkinson's Disease: By understanding what LGBTQ+ people with PD need, and what ideas they have for improving their healthcare, better systems for meeting their needs can be built. Next Steps for Development: With this understanding, future work can focus on educating healthcare providers and clinics to improve the ways they talk with and treat LGBTQ+ people with PD.

In this study, the investigators aim to provide a deeper understanding of Parkinson's disease and find a biomarker of Parkinson's disease. This is done using imaging scans called Positron Emission tomography (PET), Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT), and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). The findings will provide a deeper understanding of the brain changes in Parkinson's disease. More importantly, this study will help with the discovery and development of new medications aiming to delay progression of Parkinson's disease symptoms

Parkinson's disease affects all the nerve cells in the body, including the ones in the gut. The gut contains its own nervous system, the enteric nervous system, and can be thought of as a "second brain". This second brain can reflect what is going on in the actual brain. This study is being done to look for biomarkers, or early indicators of developing Parkinson's disease, in the microbiome and in the gut tissue taken during routine screening colonoscopy. People aged 45 and over who are due for their routine screening colonoscopy are eligible to participate.

Handwriting is a complex cognitive prowess that deteriorates in patients affected by neurodegenerative diseases, including movement disorders. More in detail, patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) may manifest prominent handwriting abnormalities which have been collectively identified as parkinsonian micrographia. MIcrographia may manifest at the onset of the disease and then worsens progressively with time. Previous techniques released to investigate micrographia in PD relied on perceptual analysis of simple tasks or were based on expensive technological tools, including tablets. However, handwriting can be promptly collected in an ecological scenario, through safe, cheap, and largely available tools. Also, the objective handwriting analysis through artificial intelligence would represent an innovative strategy even superior to previous techniques, since it allows for the analysis of large amounts of data. In this experimental project, the investigators apply a specific machine learning algorithm to analyze handwriting samples recorded in healthy controls and PD patients. The study aims to verify whether the technique proposed by the investigators would be able to detect parkinsonian micrographia objectively, monitor the evolution of handwriting abnormalities and assess the symptomatic improvement of handwriting following L-Dopa administration in PD patients.

Psychological distress (anxiety and depression) is common in and experienced differently by people living with long-term health conditions (LTCs). Being able to measure whether psychological distress is related to living with a LTC would allow researchers and clinicians to provide interventions specifically tailored to the challenges of living with a LTC and therefore provide the most appropriate support for these patients. Such a measure would also be useful in research to identify the presence of illness-related distress in different patient groups. This project will therefore create a new measure of illness-related distress that has applications for both research and clinical practice. This will involve the psychometric validation of the new illness-related distress measure to test how valid and reliable the measure is. The aim of the project is to provide initial validation of the Illness Related Distress Scale in a community sample, recruited through online platforms. The objective of the study is to gather initial validity and reliability data for the scale.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is usually responsible of cognitive and behavioral non-motor signs with a major impact on the quality of life. Social cognition is a complex system relying on emotion recognition (neurons mirror system (NMS)), the theory of mind (with its two parts: emotional and cognitive), but also on the social and cultural environment and the personal history. The first step in this model is represented by the NMS, which seems to be altered in PD patients for both positive and negative emotions as shown in our preliminary study. The investigator purpose is to investigate the role of the treatment (levodopa and deep brain stimulation) on the functioning of the NMS