Due to Parkinson's Disease (PD) speech and language (SL) deficits may occur. Further, the literature reports that PD patients, who have not undergone deep brain stimulation (DBS), have deficits regarding voice quality (e.g. loudness and intelligibility of their voice), while PD patients who have undergone DBS suffer from deficits in word retrieval and speech apraxia symptoms. To-date, therapeutic approaches focusing specifically on SL deficits observed in PD-DBS patients are yet to be developed and evaluated. Therefore, this study investigates the short-and longterm effectiveness of specific and intensive, high-frequency speech-language therapy in terms of reducing SL-deficits compared to a nonspecific and non-verbal sham treatment (i.e. a rhythmic balance-movement training (rBMT)) as well as to a 'no-therapy' condition.
In the course of Parkinson's disease (PD) speech and language (SL) deficits may often emerge. In addition, severe verbal fluency (VF) decline has been repeatedly observed in the context of deep brain stimulation (DBS) in PD. Interestingly, while PD non-DBS patients have deficits with respect to loudness and intelligibility of their voice, PD patients who have undergone DBS (PD-DBS) suffer rather from difficulties in semantic and phonemic word retrieval, and from speech apraxia symptoms. However, to-date and to the best of our knowledge, therapeutic approaches focusing specifically on SL deficits observed in PD-DBS patients are yet to be developed and evaluated regarding their effectiveness. Thus, this study investigates the short-and longterm effectiveness of specific and intensive, high-frequency speech-language therapy in terms of reducing SL-deficits compared to a nonspecific and non-verbal sham treatment (i.e. a rhythmic balance-movement training (rBMT)) as well as to a 'no-therapy' condition.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
38
Provided by a professional speech-language therapist (SLT) on a one-to-one basis. In approx. 45 Minutes sessions, 3 times per week for 4 weeks in total.
Provided on a one-to-one basis. In approx. 30-45 Minutes sessions, 3 times per week for 4 weeks in total.
University Hospital Basel
Basel, Canton of Basel-City, Switzerland
Velocity in Gait
Gait Velocity: meters per second
Time frame: At Baseline (BL), T1 after 4 weeks (4W-directly after intervention), T2 after 6 months (6M).
Cadence in Gait
4-Weeks and 6-Months Follow-up. To measure rhythmicity in gait, participants walked 6 metres at their individual pace. They were timed and amount of steps were counted.
Time frame: At Baseline (BL), T1 after 4 weeks (4W-directly after intervention), T2 after 6 months (6M).
Speech Velocity
Speech Velocity at 4 weeks and at 6 months To measure rhythmicity in speech, participants read a text aloud ('the north wind and the sun') and were recorded using an Olympus. According to these speech samples, the count of elicited syllables per second was calculated.
Time frame: At Baseline (BL), T1 after 4 weeks (4W-directly after intervention), T2 after 6 months (6M).
Speech Cadence
Speech Cadence 4 Weeks and at 6 Months To measure rhythmicity in speech, participants' speech was recorded while reading a text aloud ('the north wind and the sun'). Elicited syllables per inspiration were analysed.
Time frame: At Baseline (BL), T1 after 4 weeks (4W-directly after intervention), T2 after 6 months (6M).
Health Status (UPDRS)
The complete questionnaire 'Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale' (UPDRS) was filled out at BL and 6M. Scores may range from 0-4 per question. Final scores may add up to 199 points maximum. The higher the score, the worse disease severity/ degree of disability is.
Time frame: At Baseline and 6 Months
Neuropsychiatric Self-rating Questionnaires
Self-rating questionnaires investigating depression using the Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI). This is a 21 question, multiple choice, self-report questionnaire. Minimum score is 0 and maximum scores is 63. The higher the score the more severe is the depression. Details: 0-9: indicates minimal depression 10-18: indicates mild depression 19-29: indicates moderate depression 30-63: indicates severe depression.
Time frame: At 4 Weeks and 6 Months
Neuropsychological Standardised Test Battery
Inhibition Control (Stroop), Visio-Construction (Mosaic), Flexibility (Trail Making Test), Episodic Memory (Basel Verbal Learning Test -long delayed free recall), Working Memory (backwards digit span task by Wechsler). Scores were standardized (z-scores) to a mean of 0 and standard deviation of 1. The Z-score indicates the number of standard deviations away from the mean. A Z-score of 0 is equal to the mean of a reference population. Negative numbers indicate values lower than the reference population and positive numbers indicate values higher than the reference population
Time frame: At 4 Weeks and at 6 Months
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