Emotional Prosody Treatment in Parkinson's

NCT01956266 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: O0958-M
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 10
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

This study investigates a treatment protocol which holds the potential to significantly improve communication and quality of life for individuals affected by Parkinson's disease (PD). Disorders of emotional communication are widely reported in PD and can negatively impact quality of life by increasing social isolation and decreasing independence. Individuals with emotional prosodic communication disorders are often perceived as depressed or unconcerned about others. This seeming negativity can cause difficulties in relationships, and increased feelings of stress and burden in caregivers which may result in earlier placement in an institutional care setting. This innovative treatment program could improve care for individuals with PD, as well as other individuals who may be affected by disorders of emotional prosodic communication (e.g., stroke or traumatic brain injury).

Conditions

Parkinson Disease

Keywords

Prosody; Communication; Dysarthria

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Change from pre to post treatment in perceptual and acoustic analysis of sentences spoken in emotional tones.

  The primary outcome of 96 semantically neutral sentences is read aloud using one of four emotional tones of voice. The participant will be given a card with the sentence and a card denoting the emotional tone to be used when speaking the sentence aloud. Participants will be wearing a headset cardioid microphone with frequency response tailored to vocal use with a shock mount to reduce handling and cable noise. Participant's responses will be recorded using the VisiPitch IV software designed for analysis and feedback and stored for future analysis.

  Administered before initiation of treatment and after 8 treatment sessions over an expected average of 3 weeks.

Study Arms (1)

Emotional prosodic treatment

EXPERIMENTAL

The experimental treatment is consistent with the standard treatment in that it targets impairments in pitch/stress, loudness variability and control of speech rate, the core characteristics of prosodic insufficiency in PD (Darley, Aronson \& Brown, 1969). However, the experimental treatment provides an innovative and targeted emphasis on the emotional component of the disorder. The production of emotional intonation in an utterance requires varying combinations of pitch/stress, loudness, and rate.

Behavioral: Emotional prosodic treatment

Interventions

Emotional prosodic treatment BEHAVIORAL

The experimental treatment is consistent with the standard treatment in that it targets impairments in pitch/stress, loudness variability and control of speech rate, the core characteristics of prosodic insufficiency in PD (Darley, Aronson \& Brown, 1969). However, the experimental treatment provides an innovative and targeted emphasis on the emotional component of the disorder. The production of emotional intonation in an utterance requires varying combinations of pitch/stress, loudness, and rate. Participants will receive clinician feedback as well as auditory and visual feedback on accuracy via the VisiPitch display.

Emotional prosodic treatment

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 45 Years - 85 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Experimental subjects must meet the Brain Bank criteria (Gibb \& Lees, 1988) for idiopathic PD.
• All participants must:
• be between the ages of 45 and 85
• have at least a sixth grade education
• fluent in English
• The investigators will obtain information about participant's Parkinson's disease history from medical records including:
• age at onset
• current age
• gender
• handedness
• level of education
• side of the body initially affected
• information regarding subsequent clinical progression
• medications
• most recent Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) scores

You may not qualify if:

• Individuals will be excluded with other forms of Parkinsonism such as:
• multiple systems atrophy
• Lewy body dementia
• progressive supranuclear palsy
• co-existing dementia (as indicated by score on Montreal Cognitive Assessment of below 26)
• neurological disease other than idiopathic PD
• major depression
• any other psychiatric illness
• chronic medical and neurological diseases other than PD (e.g., cardiac failure, renal disease, hepatic failure, stroke, or severe sensory deficits such as deafness or blindness (corrected visual acuity less than 20/50).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• VA Office of Research and Development: lead

Study Sites (1)

North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System, Gainesville, FL

Gainesville, Florida, 32608, United States

Location

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Parkinson Disease; Communication; Dysarthria

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Parkinsonian Disorders; Basal Ganglia Diseases; Brain Diseases; Central Nervous System Diseases; Nervous System Diseases; Movement Disorders; Synucleinopathies; Neurodegenerative Diseases; Behavior; Articulation Disorders; Speech Disorders; Language Disorders; Communication Disorders; Neurobehavioral Manifestations; Neurologic Manifestations; Signs and Symptoms; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms

Study Officials

• Susan A Leon, PhD

  North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System, Gainesville, FL

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NA
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: SINGLE GROUP
• Sponsor Type: FED
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Model Details: Single group, pretest postest behavioral treatment design

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: September 13, 2013
• First Posted: October 8, 2013
• Study Start: October 1, 2013
• Primary Completion: May 31, 2017
• Study Completion: May 31, 2017
• Last Updated: November 18, 2019

Record last verified: 2019-11

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share

Locations

US (1)