rTMS as a Cognitive Rehabilitation Approach in Veterans With Parkinson's Disease
VA Office of Research and Development
Summary
The purpose of this study is to examine safety, feasibility, and the behavioral and brain effects of a non-invasive treatment, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), for Veterans with Parkinson's disease or atypical parkinsonism and mild impairments in their thinking. The hypothesis is that rTMS can improve thinking for people with Parkinson's disease or atypical parkinsonism who are experiencing mild problems with their thinking ability.
Description
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) shows promise as an effective cognitive neurorehabilitation treatment. To date, no rTMS studies have assessed the effect of rTMS on cognitive function in PD-MCI. Nor has there been PD neurophysiological studies using rTMS to examine neural plasticity in cognitive neural networks. This study seeks to fill this gap by conducting a small scaled pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) designed to assess the safety and therapeutic effects of rTMS on cognitive outcomes as well as on brain connectivity in Veterans with PD-MCI. PD-MCI participants wi…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 50+ years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- No
Inclusion Criteria: * Veterans who seek services at Hines VA Hospital or Jesse Brown VA Medical Center * Diagnosis of PD or atypical parkinsonism as determined by a neurologist * Meet criteria for having mild cognitive impairment * Receiving stable (i.e., no changes in medication and medication dose) medication and who are expected to remain on stable medication for the duration of the RCT * Speak and read English * 50 years or older Exclusion Criteria: * Dementia * Failure to demonstrate decision making capacity * History of deep brain stimulation surgery * Severe depression * Resting head…
Interventions
- DeviceMagVenture MagProX100 stimulator (MagVenture, Falun, Denmark)
The coil will be held tangentially to the skull at approximately 45º from the midline. One rTMS session will consist of 40 trains of 5sec each at 110% of resting motor threshold and 15Hz will be provided at the left DLPFC.
- DeviceMagVenture MagProX100 stimulator (MagVenture, Falun, Denmark)
The coil will be held tangentially to the skull at approximately 45º from the midline. The sham coil will not release any stimulation, but it will look, feel and sound like the real rTMS
Locations (2)
- Jesse Brown VA Medical Center, Chicago, ILChicago, Illinois
- Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital, Hines, ILHines, Illinois