Study Status: Completed
Recruit Status: Completed
Study Type: Interventional
Official Title: Treating Speech Disorders in Patients With Parkinson's Disease Using Altered Auditory Feedback
Brief Summary:
This project will systematically examine the therapeutic effect of altered auditory feedback provided by the in-the-ear device on the speech impairments in patients with Parkinson's disease.
Many patients with PD have difficulty starting their speech even though they know the words they want to say. They experience 'freezing' of the jaw, tongue and lips. When they eventually get their speech started, they have a hard time moving it forward. They keep on saying the same words or phrases over and over again while their voice gets softer and softer. Many words also run together. These symptoms make patients' speech very hard to understand and directly affect their care and quality of life. Currently, there is no effective medical or surgical treatment for these speech symptoms.
We have tested an in-the-ear therapeutic device that provides altered auditory feedback in eight patients with PD and moderate to severe speech impairment and the results are encouraging. We will recruit 100 patients with PD and moderate to severe speech impairment for Phase A and 20 for Phase B of the study. They will use the device routinely to provide the altered auditory feedback as they speak to improve their speech intelligibility.