Monthly Archives: April 2019

Dance for Parkinson's, Exercise, Music, Parkinson's, Research, Reviews , , , , , Leave a comment

Dance and exercise – a study and a publications review

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Not much new here – more evidence that dance exercises and physical exercise in general, is beneficial for people with PD.

Shall We Dance – master’s thesis  by Brittni Lynn McAlister, University of North Colorado

 In the words of one participant, the dance classes have been “. . . completely life-changing.”

Systematic review of exercises for Parkinson’s

This review revealed that people with Parkinson’s disease viewed physical activity as an enjoyable and positive experience, which aided with control of their symptoms and enhanced their wellbeing and quality of life.

 

Dance for Parkinson's, Drumming, Music, Parkinson's, Research , , Leave a comment

Almost let these references get away

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Some recent articles about music and dance – thought I had already published this – it appears not. Either that, or I’m more cognitively impaired than I thought I was. If this keeps up, I’ll have normal intelligence:

Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin, and Endorphins 

Acronym is DOSE, and it’s a short article talking about how dance is good for you because it releases several different hormones and neurotransmitters – and not just because it makes you feel good – but because it does….😎

Language of music and psychophysical foundations  

from the abstract: “Application of music in rehabilitation medicine requires an understanding of the mechanisms of music perception. This article discusses differences in character of the basic melodic elements and addresses some of the specifics of tonal space. Colloquially, music is called the language of emotion. Bearing in mind that high-level cognitive functioning in humans is inseparable from affective consciousness, investigating the mechanisms of emotional processing belongs to an important area of cognitive sciences. Studying music perception can help to advance methods of music therapy and to elucidate major aspects of human consciousness.” (emphasis added)(Article is on ReseaechGate; membership(.

Drumming program to improve social interactions

Although the article is about subjects with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), I think that the results are likely to be replicable with or generalizable to Parkinson’s Disease folks.

” results suggest that the children with ASD significantly improved in the domains of enjoyment and fun, and showed a positive trend for developing improved social relationships with peers and camp counselor partners.”

 

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Parkinson's, Research, Reviews , Leave a comment

Dance/movement, quality of life, and social skills, oh my!

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First, an abstract:

Use of Dance/Movement therapy for autism spectrum

“… future research must demonstrate greater scientific rigor in documenting the efficacy of DMT treatment interventions. It also found that imitation (mirroring) interventions helped individuals with ASD improve their social skills.” (Bold added) (This article was one of those reviews of published articles. The abstract does include a list of references, many of which are available online).

Next, an open access article on multidisciplinary approach:
(This sounds like another article recently posted. Would investigate, but having Parkinson’s means there’s never enough time to do everything you want to do).

Enhanced Quality of Life

Objectives: To compare the effects of inpatient enhanced multidisciplinary care (EMC) and multidisciplinary rehabilitation (MR)
on the symptoms and quality of life (QOL) of patients with Parkinson disease (PD) and to clarify the relation between reduction in
symptoms and the improved QOL. Methods: This study was a quasi-randomized controlled (alternate allocation), assessor blinded, single-center study. We recruited 80 patients with idiopathic Parkinson disease, Hoehn and Yahr stage 2 to 4, on stable
medication. Patients were included in an EMC or MR group. Both rehabilitation programs were performed for 8 weeks (17 h/wk).
Main outcome measures were Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire-39 and Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale. Results: The
EMC induced significant improvements in QOL compared to MR. We found that body axis symptoms (rising from a chair,
posture, postural stability, falling, and walking) as well as nonmotor symptoms (depression) in patients with PD were relieved by
the inpatient EMC. Conclusions: Enhanced multidisciplinary care for patients with PD appears to be effective in improving the
QOL. The improvement in motor and nonmotor symptoms, including depression, may contribute to the improved QOL.

Finally, another open access article that might be of interest to those using technology: analysis of respiration to evaluate movement.

The role of respiration audio in multimodal analysis of movement qualities

A little out in left field, but who knows?

That’s all for today, folks. Read and ponder.