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Light Therapy Intervention in Individuals With Parkinson's Disease

Not Applicable
Recruiting
Conditions
Parkinson Disease
Registration Number
NCT06916260
Lead Sponsor
University of Delaware
Brief Summary

The study looks to investigate the effects that light therapy delivered to the frontal cortex could have on Parkinson's disease related symptoms ( both cognitive and motor). The therapy is a non invasive technique that deliverers low level wavelength light to the front part of the head for 12 minutes. for this study the therapy will be done 3 times a week for 6 weeks. To measure the potential effects on the therapy in Parkinson symptoms, we will do a set of cognitive and motor test before and after the intervention to measure any changes as well as control for any potential markers such as age, sex, disease level, medication and exercise.

Detailed Description

Not available

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
RECRUITING
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
20
Inclusion Criteria
  • Diagnosis of Parkinson disease
Exclusion Criteria
  1. Participants who are unable to comply with study visit/testing requirements (e.g.

    participants who cannot go off PD medication for the pre-, post-, and 3-month assessments).

  2. Participants who are unable to provide consent.

  3. Participants with a Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) device.

  4. Participants who have a history of a psychiatric disorder

  5. Participants with PD who have other concurrent movement/neurological conditions, including dystonia, dementia, epilepsy etc.

  6. Participants with a clinical diagnosis of PD that is not considered primary (e.g.

    vascular parkinsonism) or participants where an atypical form of parkinsonism is suspected (e.g., progressive supranuclear palsy, multiple system atrophy).

  7. Participants with a history of cancer (whether treated with chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy or not).

  8. Participants with a history of a recent concussion or any facial, neck, or head injury within the last 6 months. UD IRB Approved: 03/12/2025 IRBNet ID#: 2277769-2 I/C from Rev. 01/2024 Page 3 of 10 Participant's Initial's ________

  9. Known injury or disease that might interfere with motor function in the proposed experiments (e.g., stroke, traumatic brain injury, extrapyramidal dysfunction, neuromuscular disease, orthopedic problems that impair movement).

  10. Participants with a history of photosensitivity.

  11. Participants who are not able to walk unassisted for 2 minutes

Study & Design

Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Study Design
CROSSOVER
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
cognitive symptom improvementDone immediately before (pre test) and after (post test) intervention lasting about 1 hour. The intervention lasts about 6 weeks, so in between the pre and post tests there will be about a 6 week period.

The investigators want to asses whether light therapy has a positive effect on reducing the cognitive symptoms related with PD, such as loss of short term memory, attention and processing speed. This will be measured using a set of tests and questioners (i.e MoCa, NIH cognitive battery, brief Test of attention (BTA)). Performance on these tests and questioners, which measure diverse aspects of cognition, will be compared before and after the intervention to establish if there is a positive effect of the therapy on any aspect of cognition. The intervention will last a total of 6 weeks right after the completion of the pre intervention assessment. after the completion of the 6 weeks of intervention therapy, the pre test will be conducted and cognitive measure changes will be recorded.

motor symptomsDone immediately before (pre test) and after(post test) intervention lasting about 1 hour. The intervention lasts 6 weeks, so there is about a 6 week period in between the two sessions ( pre and post)

The investigators want to asses whether light therapy has a positive effect on reducing the motor symptoms related with PD, such as changes in gait, tremors, and slowing of movement. This will be measured using a set of tests and questioners (i.e MDSUPDRS, Dual task walking, APDM motion capture over a set of tests). Performance on these tests and questioners, which measure diverse aspects of motor capabilities, will be compared before (pre test) and after (post tests) the intervention to establish if there is a positive effect of the therapy on any aspect of motor control and movement. The intervention will last a total of 6 weeks, done right after the completion of the pre intervention assessment. after the completion of the 6 weeks of intervention therapy, the pre test will be conducted and any changes in motor measures will be recorded.

Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

University of Delaware STAR Tower

🇺🇸

Newark, Delaware, United States

University of Delaware STAR Tower
🇺🇸Newark, Delaware, United States
Sara Penuela, PhD Student
Contact
973-974-0120
penuelas@udel.edu
John Jeka, PdD
Contact
jjeka@udel.edu
sara Penuela, PhD student
Sub Investigator
John Jeka, PhD
Principal Investigator
Roxana Burciu, PhD
Principal Investigator
Thomas Buckley, PhED
Principal Investigator

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