Empathy and (Self-)Compassion in Parkinson's Disease Patients and Caregivers

Alain Kaelin

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Parkinson Disease(PD)

Treatments: Behavioral: empathy and compassion training

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT07097298

EMPCOMP-PD-001

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this clinical trial is to improve quality of life in Parkinson's Disease (PD) patients by increasing their empathy and their (self-)compassion. The main question it aims to answer is:

Does the level of quality of life in PD patients and caregivers improve after empathy/(self-)compassion training?

Participants will be delivered a 6-week empathy and compassion training (mindfulness, writing and poetry exercises addressing the cognitive, emotional, motivational and behavioural components of (self-)compassion) and will also be asked to answer questionnaires before and after the training

Enrollment: 30 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 50 to 80 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Diagnosis of PD
• Hoehn and Yahr scale, stage ≤ 3
• Mini Mental State Examination with a score ≥ 26
• Able to give informed consent as documented by signature
• At least, secondary school education
• To have a regular caregiver at home

Exclusion criteria

• Any medical condition that is not PD, such as drug induced parkinsonism
• Major depression, dysthymia, or according to DSM-V
• Other neurological or psychiatric diseases
• Neuropsychological scores compatible with the diagnosis of early dementia
• Inability to follow the procedures of the study, e.g. due to language problems, psychological disorders, etc

For CAREGIVERS:

Inclusion criteria

• Taking care of the patient on a regular basis, i.e., at least 3 days per week
• Being caregiver of the patients for at least 3 months
• At least, secondary school education
• Written informed consent

Trial design

Primary purpose: Supportive Care

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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30 participants in 1 patient group

Empathy and (self-)compassion training

Experimental group

Description:

A 6-week empathy and compassion training will be designed and delivered involving PD patients and caregivers. During the compassion training participants will do mindfulness, writing and poetry exercises addressing the cognitive, emotional, motivational and behavioural components of (self-)compassion. The training will be designed in order to address both self-compassion and compassion. We expect to conduct 1 session at the beginning and 1 session at the end of the program with exercises to do at home for 6 weeks, assigned as tasks based on the needs of patients and their caregivers

Treatment:

Behavioral: empathy and compassion training