ART THERAPY LINKED TO SLOWED PARKINSON'S PROGRESSION

Adding art therapy to standard drug treatment in Parkinson’s disease (PD) not only improves severity of both motor and nonmotor symptoms, but also slows rates of disease progression, new research suggests.

Fifty patients were included in the study, with 30 assigned to standard drug therapy alone and 20 to the combined intervention. Participants had a mean age of 57.8 years, and 46% were women.

Over the study period, investigators found patients assigned to art therapy plus drug treatment had improved mood, as well as decreased daytime sleeping, reduced tremor, and a decrease in anxiety and fear intensity.

Between baseline and the 6- and 12-month assessments, patients in the combined therapy group showed improvements in scores on all of the questionnaires, and on the Pegboard Test. In contrast, scores were either stable or worsened in the standard drug therapy alone group.

The team notes that there was also a marked difference in rates of disease progression, defined as a change on the Hoehn and Yahr scale of at least 0.5 points, between the two groups.

Only two (10%) patients in the combined drug and art therapy progressed over the study period, compared with 10 (33%) in the control group (P=.05).

The findings complement those of a recent study conducted by Alberto Cucca, MD, Fresco Institute for Parkinson’s and Movement Disorders, NYU School of Medicine, New York City, and colleagues.

Eighteen patients took part in the prospective, open-label trial. They were assessed before and after 20 sessions of art therapy on a range of measures.

Results revealed that following the art therapy, patients had improvements in the Navon Test (which assesses visual neglect, eye tracking, and UPDRS scores), as well as significantly increased functional connectivity levels in the visual cortex on resting-state functional MRI.

Many Benefits, No Side Effects

Rebecca Gilbert, MD, PhD, Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of the American Parkinson Disease Association—who was not involved in either study—told Medscape Medical News that the idea of art therapy for patients with Parkinson’s is “very reasonable.”

She highlighted that “people with Parkinson’s have many issues with their visuospatial abilities,” as well as their depth and distance perception, and so “enhancing that aspect could potentially be very beneficial.”

“So I’m hopeful that it’s a really good avenue to explore, and the preliminary data is very exciting.”

Gilbert also highlighted that the “wonderful” aspect of art therapy is that there are “so many benefits and not really any side effects.” Patients can “take the meds…and then enhance that with various therapies, and this would be an additional option.”

Another notable aspect of art therapy is the “social element” and the sense of “camaraderie,” although that has “to be teased out from the benefits you would get from the actual art therapy.”

Finally, Gilbert pointed out that the difference between the current trial and Cucca’s trial is the presence of a control group.

“Of course, it’s not blinded, because you know whether you got therapy or not…but that extra element of being able to compare with a group that didn’t get the treatment gives it a little more weight in terms of the field.”