View clinical trials related to Parkinson Disease.
Filter by:Physical activity is a key intervention used to reduce the healthcare costs and the negative consequences of Parkinson Disease (PD) by improving walking and balance and reducing the number of falls. However, not all exercise classes provide the same results for people with PD. Specific exercises designed to target the features of PD have shown greater outcomes than generic physical activity. The exercise principles include high-intensity (size and speed) movement, task repetition, rhythmical rocking, mental imagery, cognitive strategies, treadmill walking, and making use of internal and external cues. Collectively these PD-specific exercises can be designed to be run in exercise groups. Structured exercise groups also include social interaction that is known to improve depression and apathy, both of which are features common in people with PD. This study will compare the effect of specific, long-term community-based exercise class on balance, walking, quality of life, and mood compare to self-directed exercise. Investigators anticipate that participants from the community-based, long-term intervention will show better improvements in balance and walking compare to participants that are self-directing their activities.
The purpose of this study is to determine whether the gastric retentive Accordion Pill™ Carbidopa/Levodopa (AP-CD/LD) is more effective than the commercially available immediate release Carbidopa/Levodopa in reducing motor fluctuations such as "off time" in advanced Parkinson's Disease patients.
Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder affecting approximately 80,000 Veterans, representing a priority area for VA research. Current medicines for PD only improve symptoms, treatments that slow disease progression are needed, and earlier diagnosis of PD may be the key to their development. PD symptoms can be mimicked by medicines (most commonly antipsychotic drugs that block dopamine), and some of these patients actually have underlying "prodromal" PD that was "unmasked" years before it would have caused symptoms. This problem is increasing as these medicines are now used for common conditions including post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. The investigators will identify prodromal PD in patients with drug-induced symptoms using brain scans. These patients will be enrolled in a randomized clinical trial of aerobic exercise which slows progression in animal models of PD and has other health benefits. The investigators will measure the effect of exercise on symptoms, disease progression (using brain scans) and markers of PD risk (using blood tests). These studies will improve early PD diagnosis and potentially identify a way to slow progression of PD.
Phase 1 study evaluating the safety of combined bilateral subthalamic nucleus (STN) and basal nucleus of Meynert (NBM) stimulation in treating levodopa responsive motor symptoms of Parkinsonism and cognitive dysfunction in patients with advanced Parkinson's disease having mild to moderate dementia.
SER-214 is a poly (2-ethyl-2oxazoline)(POZ) polymer conjugate of rotigotine, a potent dopamine agonist that has high affinity for the subclass of dopamine receptors in the brain that mediate dopamine signaling. SER-214 will be administered subcutaneously once a week via a standard 1 mL insulin syringe to determine the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetic (PK) profile of released rotigotine and POZ-conjugate. Subjects in this study are eligible if they have early, stable or untreated Parkinson's disease and are still experiencing motor fluctuations.
Most Parkinsonism related pain can be assigned to one or more of five categories: musculoskeletal pain, neuritic or radicular pain, dystonia associated pain, primary or central pain, and akathitic discomfort. In PD pain tends to affect the side of the body that was initially, or more severe affected by the motor symptoms. Botulinum toxins are an effective treatment modality for a growing number of neurological conditions. They have been studied for a variety of conditions associated with PD including dystonia, jaw tremor, apraxia of eyelid opening, camptocormia, dyskinesias, freezing of gait, sialhorrea, overactive bladder and constipation. There are no studies for the use of Botulinum Toxin for pain in PD. The investigators will perform a double-blind, randomized cross-over study evaluating the efficacy and safety of an individual pattern of BTXA injections targeted at painful muscles vs. placebo injection.
The purpose of this research study is to learn more about brain activity when individuals with and without Parkinson disease (PD) move their lower limbs. The investigators also want to see if and how two different types of partnered dance affect brain activity in individuals with and without PD. Testing will take place at the Atlanta VA Medical Center and at Emory University. The investigators expect to enroll about 140 people for this study over a five-year period.
This study will evaluate the safety of an investigational cell transplantation therapy, ISC-hpNSC, in patients with Parkinson's disease. All patients will receive the therapy, which consists of human neural stem cells. Three dose levels will be examined in the study.
There have been growing interest in identifying Parkinson's disease (PD) patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) which is susceptible to progress to PD dementia(PDD). PD-MCI is known to significantly correlates with low cerebrospinal beta-amyloid 1-42 and 1-40 levels, in which suggest the existence of something common with Alzheimer's dementia. PDD have showed more cholinergic deficits than Alzheimer's dementia and responds to donepezil. The investigators assume that PD-MCI patients also have cholinergic deficits. Donepezil improves cognition, and seems to be well tolerated and not to worsen parkinsonism in patients with cognitive impairment. Donepezil produced similar improvements in cognition and behaviour in DLB and PDD. This supports the hypothesis that the two disorders are closely related clinically and neurobiologically. Larger scale, placebo controlled clinical trials are needed to provide an evidence base to guide the clinical use of cholinesterase inhibitors in Lewy body disease. It is believed that earlier intervention, later appearance of dementia should be needed to lower the socioeconomic costs and to improve the quality of life on patients and caregivers. The investigators anticipate that donepezil may delay the development of dementia in patients with PD-MCI.
This pilot study is designed to follow up on a previous, preliminary study and test the long-term safety and feasibility of the implantation of autologous peripheral nerve grafts into the substantia nigra, basal forebrain, putamen, and/or STN of participants with PD undergoing deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery. Peripheral nerve tissue contains Schwann cells which produce growth factors that have been demonstrated to support the survival and function of neurons. Participants will serve as their own donor for the tissue, which will be implanted at the time they undergo DBS surgery.