Effectiveness of Oculomotor Training in Parkinson's Disease

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Oculomotor; Disorder; Parkinson Disease

Treatments: Other: Control Group; Other: Oculomotor Training Group

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04560504

15102717

Details and patient eligibility

About

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder which is characterized by both motor and non-motor symptoms and usually affects people aged 50 years or above. Many studies showed eye movement deficits and visual changes in patients with PD.

Previous studies have also indicated that clinical eye movement training could enhance the functional performance of patients with various eye movement problems resulting from ocular and neurodegenerative diseases.

In this study, we will investigate the effectiveness of eye movement training on dynamic vision and functional performance in PD patients with oculomotor deficits.

Enrollment: 27 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 40 to 70 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Parkinson's Disease diagnosed by a neurologist or geriatrician with the range of Stage

  1 to 4 (Hoehn and Yahr Classification)

• Able to speak and comprehend Cantonese dialect

• Able to travel independently

Exclusion criteria

• Any congenital eye problem (e.g. congenital strabismus or amblyopia in either eye) or any manifest eye diseases (e.g. macular degeneration, glaucoma, etc)
• Severe medical problems (e.g. stroke)
• Cognitive impairment (e.g. dementia)
• Presence of any psychiatric or neurological diseases (apart from Parkinson's disease) or receiving of any psychoactive pharmacological treatment
• Receiving any medication that is known to affect eye movement and cognitive function
• Previous formal vision rehabilitation or oculomotor intervention

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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27 participants in 2 patient groups, including a placebo group

Control Group

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

Receive 10 sessions of 45-minute (3 sessions per week) in-office leisure activities e.g. simple non-action computer games or board games (e.g. card and chess games) and 10-20 minutes of video watching at home

Treatment:

Other: Control Group

Intervention Group

Active Comparator group

Description:

Receive 10 sessions of 45-minute office training (3 sessions per week) and 10-20 minute home training (3 sessions per week) of eye movement training

Treatment:

Other: Oculomotor Training Group