Targeting Neurological Symptoms’ Effects on the Human Experience While motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease are often the most widely recognized, neurological symptoms are common and affect patients’ day-to-day quality of life. RUSH experts seek to better understand, evaluate and treat these symptoms.
Creating Social Connections
validated tools to serve people with Parkinson’s disease.
Examining effects of loneliness on motor and nonmotor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease
Dr. González and his team enrolled more than 180 participants in their study and began collecting data in February. Recruitment will end this fall, and results will be disseminated soon after. The team aims to create resources for other researchers and clinicians to measure social connection and better understand the complex web of loneliness and Parkinson’s varied symptoms.
Loneliness — the discrepancy between desired relationships and actual social connections — is linked to poor health and has increased in people with Parkinson’s disease, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic. In the general population, it is related to increased mortality risk, cognitive decline, less physical activity, reduced motor functioning and increased depression. Previous research has shown that loneliness leads to a 49% increase in dementia risk over an average of six years.
“Preliminary results reveal loneliness seems to be related to the daily functioning of people with Parkinson’s disease and how they feel it’s limiting their daily activities,” Dr. González said. “There seems to be something about the disease that’s limiting not just the number of people they see but the quality of those relationships. We need to explore that further.”
Loneliness poses such grave mental and physical health risks that U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy released an advisory about the epidemic of loneliness and isolation in early 2023, bringing national and international attention to the issue.
Study participants complete a survey packet that includes a loneliness scale and depression screening. Participants are asked to provide information about their social network size, perceived social support, life space circumference and quality of life. Survey responses are then linked to information about participants’ disease progression and symptoms.
Despite its known comorbidities, loneliness is understudied in Parkinson’s disease. To learn more about its presentation in this population, David A. González, PhD, ABPP, neuropsychologist in the Department of Neurological Sciences, launched a study to examine the relationship between motor and nonmotor symptom severity and loneliness. This study will also cross-validate isolation and loneliness scales so professionals can have a range of
Dr. González and his team also collaborate with Robert S. Wilson, PhD, professor of neurological sciences at the RUSH Alzheimer’s Disease Center, who was one of the first neuropsychologists to examine the connection between
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