The Effect of LSVT LOUD for Mandarin-speaking Individuals With Hypokinetic Dysarthria Due to Parkinson's Disease

National Taiwan University

Status: Unknown

Conditions: Hypokinetic Dysathria

Treatments: Behavioral: Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (SVLT) LOUD

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02506205

201407035RINC

Details and patient eligibility

About

A handful of studies have examined the effects of the Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (LSVT) LOUD on hypokinetic dysarthria in English speakers with Parkinson's disease (PD). Although LSVT LOUD has been found to be effective on improving these speaker's vocal intensity and increasing their speech intelligibility as well as speech function with Phase I evidence, no study has investigated whether Mandarin-speaking individuals with dysarthria secondary to PD would benefit from LSVT LOUD. In the proposed study, speech data of Mandarin-speaking individuals with hypokinetic dysarthria before and after speech therapy will be audio recorded and analyzed in order to examine the effects of LSVT LOUD on the speech function in this population. The same speech data will be played to Mandarin listeners in order to investigate the speech intelligibility of this population. It is hypothesized that Mandarin-speaking individuals with hypokinetic dysarthria secondary to PD will demonstrate reduced vocal intensity, reduced speech intelligibility and impaired speech function before they receive LSVT LOUD. They will improve these speech characteristics following speech therapy and will present with short-term maintenance effects.

Enrollment: 40 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 30+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

1. Mandarin-speaking Taiwanese
2. Hypokinetic dysarthria due to Parkinson's disease
3. No other neurodegenerative diseases
4. No cognitive deficits
5. Age range 30 years and above

Exclusion criteria

1. Not able to follow verbal directions,
2. speech characteristics uncommon to Parkinson's disease

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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40 participants in 1 patient group

LSVT LOUD

Experimental group

Description:

LSVT LOUD was developed based on concepts of neuroplasticity, motor learning, skill acquisition and motor speech. LSVT LOUD trains laryngeal and respiratory functions through loud and effortful phonatory tasks (Ramig, Sapir, Countryman, Pawlas, O'Brien, Hoehn, \& Thomson, 2001). It targets vocal intensity via stimulation of effortful speech productions with multiple repetitions and through encouraging self-calibrations of loud voice by patients. LSVT LOUD cues patients to speak loud (e.g., Fox et al., 2002; Ramig et al., 2001; Sapir et al., 2007). Having a single cue may increase treatment effects, as it reduces cognitive load in adults with PD because some of them develop cognitive deficits when PD progresses (Fox et al., 2002). Treatment is intensive, consisting of 4 individual sessions a week for 4 weeks, with 16 sessions in one month.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (SVLT) LOUD