View clinical trials related to Parkinsonism.
Filter by:There's high incidence of seborrhic dermatitis among patients suffering from Parkinson's disease. Seborrhic dermatitis is caused by increased exertion of sebaceous glands. Previous studies have shown an increase of sebum excretion rate in parkinsonian pateints. Other studies demonstrated improvement in seborrhic dermatitis after anticholinergic treatment. From these studies we concluded that there might be hyperactivity of the parasympathetic system among PD patients, that cause increased exertion of sebum, therefore local injection of botulinium toxin, which inhibitis acetyl choline realese, might improve the rash of seborrhic dermatitis. 40 patients suffering from Parkinson disease or other parkinsonian disorders will participate in this study. Before treating the patients with botulinium toxin, we will measure the sebum exertion with the sebumeter device and make clinical evaluation of the rash. We will also take a picture of the rash. Then Botulinium toxin (60- 100 units) will be locally injected to the rash area. Two weeks after the injection the patients will be called and evaluated clinicly and by the sebumeter. Then they will be checked again after 3 weeks, after a month and after two, three and four month's.
Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder of the elderly that affects a million patients in US. Sleep dysfunction impacts up to 90% of PD patients. PD patients experience a variety of sleep disorders including parasomnias, specifically REM behavior disorder (RBD) that can precede the onset of motor manifestations of PD. RBD has negative consequences on patients' and their bed partners' quality of life mainly due to its impact on the sleep quality and day time alertness. RBD also predisposes affected individuals and their bed partners to physical injuries. There are no FDA approved treatments for RBD. Clonazepam is the most commonly used treatment but carries risks of daytime sedation, tolerance, and withdrawal symptoms. More recently, melatonin has been demonstrated to be effective in several small studies. Ramelteon, a selective melatonin receptor agonist with favorable safety profile, could potentially be effective for the treatment of RBD. This pilot protocol will investigate safety and efficacy of ramelteon for the treatment of RBD in subjects with parkinsonism. We plan to recruit 20 subjects with RBD diagnosed based on the clinical interview and confirmed by the polysomnographic (PSG) data. The study is designed as a prospective randomized placebo controlled 12-week study. Primary outcome measure will be change in frequency of RBD events based on the daily sleep diaries. Secondary outcome measure will be change in the amount of tonic muscle activity based on the results of the baseline and final PSG. A number of other secondary and exploratory outcome measures will be collected
The purposes of this study are to identify persons with rapid-onset dystonia-parkinsonism (RDP) or mutations of the RDP gene, document prevalence of the disease, and map its natural history.