Cortisol PD AD
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Innovative measurements for improved diagnosis and management of neurodegenerative diseases (NDD) - Subproject to validate LGC’s assays for free and bound cortisol as a surrogate objective measure of anxiety in people with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer's disease.
IRAS ID
201740
Contact name
Katherine H O Deane
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of East Anglia
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 9 months, 0 days
Research summary
Stress and anxiety are common problems for people who have Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s disease. Measuring stress and anxiety is hard in people with these conditions because the symptoms of Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s can be confused with stress and anxiety, and because sometimes it’s hard for people with these conditions to report on their symptoms. There is a hormone called cortisol that is released when people are stressed or anxious. It can also be affected by sleep problems, medications and the time of day. We want to see if measuring the levels of cortisol in people’s blood is a good measure for stress and anxiety in people with Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s, and if the tests we have measure it accurately.
The purpose of this study therefore, is to gather blood samples and information from patients about their levels of cortisol in their blood and to see how this relates to stress and anxiety.
We will recruit 10 people with Parkinson's, 10 with early Alzheimer's and 10 healthy controls. We will take three blood samples at 11am, 1pm and 3pm on three separate days over a fortnight. We will also assess things that can affect cortisol levels e.g. age, medications, sleep, and anxiety. We will analyse the blood cortisol levels and see how they relate to the other questionnaires.REC name
East of England - Cambridge Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/EE/0210
Date of REC Opinion
26 Jul 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion