Classical Guitar for Parkinson's Disease

June 14, 2023 updated by: Christopher Adams, University of Washington

CAPO: Classical Guitar to Alleviate Parkinson's Disease Symptom Onus

The purpose of this study is to understand if training Parkinson's disease patients in classical guitar will improve motor function, mood, and quality of life. While medication has been found to be effective for many Parkinson's disease patients, many patients still have symptoms. Previous studies have found that music and rhythm-based activities can help Parkinson's disease symptoms. A previous study looked at the effect of playing classical guitar on Parkinson's disease symptoms. They found positive changes in Parkinson's disease symptoms that lasted for 6 weeks after the study ended. Further, there were positive changes in depression, anxiety, and quality of life.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Subjects will be asked to take part in classical guitar lessons once a week for six weeks and physical therapy once a week for six weeks. There will be 40 people enrolled in the study. Twenty people will have classical guitar lessons first and physical therapy second. The other twenty people will have physical therapy first and classical guitar lessons second. The study will last a total of 12 weeks. Each session will last 1-2 hours. Sessions will be held at the Northwest Chapter headquarters of the American Parkinson's Disease Association.

Examples of the types of activities subjects will do during the physical therapy sessions include finger exercises, tasks with both hands, tasks while standing, and tasks while walking.

Examples of the types of activities you will do during the classical guitar lessons include playing chords and songs on the guitar.

Subjects will have physical exams and complete questionnaires at the beginning of the study, at six weeks, and at the end of the study.

If subjects have Apple watches, they will be asked to download an application called StrivePD on their watch and iPhone. StrivePD is an application that allows subjects to keep track of their Parkinson's disease symptoms or set medication reminders, for example. When used with an Apple watch, it can automatically record symptoms like tremors. During this study, the StrivePD application will only be used to collect data about what percentage of the day they have tremors and how much they sleep.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

40

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

  • Name: Christopher Adams, MS, MD
  • Phone Number: 206-616-5207
  • Email: caadams1@uw.edu

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Washington
      • Seattle, Washington, United States, 98109
        • Recruiting
        • Northwest Chapter of the American Parkinson Disease Association
        • Contact:
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Christopher Adams, MS, MD

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • 50-90 years old
  • Diagnosis with Parkinson's disease by a Movement Disorder specialist

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Professional musician or formal music training
  • Inability to play a classical guitar physically
  • Inability to follow instruction
  • Receiving physical therapy at the time of the study
  • Unable to attend all sessions of study

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Non-Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Crossover Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Guitar then physical therapy
Subjects will learn classical guitar then have physical therapy sessions.
Other: Guitar then physical therapy
See arm/group descriptions
Active Comparator: Physical therapy then guitar
Subjects will have physical therapy sessions then learn classical guitar
Other: Physical therapy then guitar
See arm/group descriptions

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in the motor subscore of the Movement Disorder Society Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale Motor Subscale
Time Frame: Baseline, 6 weeks, 12 weeks
Change in Parkinson's disease rating scale, range 0-32, higher score means more severe Parkinson's disease symptoms
Baseline, 6 weeks, 12 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in Parkinson's disease Questionnaire-39
Time Frame: Baseline, 6 weeks, 12 weeks
Change in scale for quality of life, range 0-100, higher means worse Parkinson's disease symptoms
Baseline, 6 weeks, 12 weeks
Change in percent of day with tremor
Time Frame: Baseline, 6 weeks, 12 weeks
Change in percent of day with tremor from apple watch
Baseline, 6 weeks, 12 weeks
Change in Beck Depression Inventory-II
Time Frame: Baseline, 6 weeks, 12 weeks
depression scale, range 0-63, higher score means worse depression
Baseline, 6 weeks, 12 weeks
Change in Apathy evaluation scale total score
Time Frame: Baseline, 6 weeks, 12 weeks
Change in apathy scale, range 18-72, higher scores means worse apathy
Baseline, 6 weeks, 12 weeks
Change in American Parkinson's disease Association symptom tracker score
Time Frame: Baseline, 6 weeks, 12 weeks
Change in Parkinson's disease symptom tracker, range 0-50, higher scores means worse symptoms
Baseline, 6 weeks, 12 weeks
Change in hours of sleep
Time Frame: Baseline, 6 weeks, 12 weeks
Change in hours of sleep measured from apple watch data
Baseline, 6 weeks, 12 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Washington

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Christopher Adams, MS, MD, University of Washington

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

June 6, 2023

Primary Completion (Estimated)

December 12, 2023

Study Completion (Estimated)

February 1, 2024

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 6, 2023

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 14, 2023

First Posted (Actual)

June 26, 2023

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

June 26, 2023

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 14, 2023

Last Verified

June 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • STUDY00017748

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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