{"id":1915,"date":"2019-07-25T09:30:17","date_gmt":"2019-07-25T08:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/psychology\/?p=1915"},"modified":"2019-10-02T12:40:47","modified_gmt":"2019-10-02T11:40:47","slug":"new-study-shows-stimulation-of-the-ear-can-help-manage-parkinsons-symptoms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/psychology\/2019\/07\/25\/new-study-shows-stimulation-of-the-ear-can-help-manage-parkinsons-symptoms\/","title":{"rendered":"New study shows stimulation of the ear can help manage Parkinson\u2019s symptoms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A new study led by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kent.ac.uk\/psychology\/people\/wilkinsond\/\">Professor David Wilkinson<\/a>, School of Psychology, has shown that gentle, controlled stimulation of the ear canal can help reduce symptoms of Parkinson\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n<p>The randomized, controlled study showed that <strong>twice-daily stimulation for two months was associated with a significant reduction in both motor and non-motor features of Parkinson\u2019s disease.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Participants reported <strong>greater movement and mobility, and showed improvements in decision-making, attention, memory, mood, and sleep.<\/strong> Participants also said that by the end of the study they found it easier to perform everyday activities by themselves.<\/p>\n<p>Most of the therapeutic gains were <strong>greatest five weeks after the end of treatment<\/strong>, suggesting that the treatment may have long lasting effects.<\/p>\n<p>The stimulation therapy was <strong>performed at home using a portable headset produced exclusively for clinical investigations by<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/directory.ncbiotech.org\/content\/scion-neurostim-llc\">Scion Neurostim<\/a>, a US-based device company. Participants continued to take their regular dopamine replacement therapy while using the \u2018easy to use\u2019 device.<\/p>\n<p>Professor Wilkinson said: \u2018This study raises the <strong>intriguing possibility that some aspects of Parkinson\u2019s disease may be better managed if traditional drug-therapies are combined with gentle, non-invasive stimulation of the balance organs\u2019. <\/strong>The results build on other work conducted by Professor Wilkinson\u2019s research group at Kent\u2019s School of Psychology, which has shown that <strong>gentle stimulation of the inner ear can also improve neurological symptoms associated with stroke and traumatic brain injury.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The study, entitled <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S1353802019302524\"><em>Caloric vestibular stimulation for the management of motor and non-motor symptoms in Parkinson\u2019s disease<\/em><\/a> (David Wilkinson, Aleksandra Podlewska, Tracy Pellat-Higgins, University of Kent, UK; Mohamed Sakel, East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, UK; Sarah E. Banducci, Kristen Ade, Lanty Smith, Scion Neurostim, USA; Martin Slade, Yale University, USA; Mayur Bodani, Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust, UK; Peter LeWitt, Henry Ford Hospital and Wayne State University School of Medicine, USA) is published in the journal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.journals.elsevier.com\/parkinsonism-and-related-disorders\"><em>Parkinsonism and Related Disorders<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new study led by Professor David Wilkinson, School of Psychology, has shown that gentle, controlled stimulation of the ear canal can help reduce symptoms &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/psychology\/2019\/07\/25\/new-study-shows-stimulation-of-the-ear-can-help-manage-parkinsons-symptoms\/\">Read&nbsp;more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55574,"featured_media":1916,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[140630,3684,70],"tags":[140632],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1915"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55574"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1915"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1917,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1915\/revisions\/1917"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}