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A Study of
the Effects of Wellness Interventions on Quality of Life in Parkinson's
Disease
Principal
Investigator: Nicholas Demetry, M.D.; Reverend
Kathleen Kiley, Dream
Insights
Background
Although
Parkinson's Disease (PD) remains primarily a movement disorder, health-related
quality of life in PD correlates best with factors such as mood, outlook
on life, self esteem and a positive understanding of the illness [GPDS
2001]. Although traditional pharmacotherapy of PD adequately addresses
motor symptoms for a number of years, with disease progression this control
quickly wanes and disability increases. As a consequence, many patients
with advancing illness find themselves despondent over their increasing
frailty, dependency, and dwindling response to conventional therapy.
In recent years,
a number of scientific studies have suggested that non-medical wellness
interventions can have positive effects on measures of disease severity
and quality of life in a variety of general medical conditions like cardiovascular
disease, arthritis and autoimmune disorders. Among these interventions,
prayer combined with pastoral counseling (PPC) has been one of the most
consistently effective. However, little research has focused on the potential
effects of PPC in neurodegenerative conditions where involvement of the
central nervous system (CNS) could potentially limit the efficacy of these
interventions.
Study
We hypothesize that prayer combined with pastoral counseling (PPC) will
increase QOL in PD and that this change will correlate with the degree
of spirituality achieved through PPC. The specific aim of this study is
to evaluate the effects of PPC on QOL in PD and to compare this effect
to that of a control intervention consisting of a series of life-enhancing
wellness seminars. PPC encompasses several modalities, all of which may
influence the results. The aim of this study is not to dissect the contribution
of each of these potentially important components to the results, but
rather to examine the impact of the intervention as it is practiced in
the complementary and alternative medicine community. The results, however,
will allow us to modify and refine the experimental design in order to
examine these contributions, and thus begin to examine the potential biological
substrates of these interventions.
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