Reducing hallucination-related distress in Parkinson's Disease
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Utility of "Sensecam" - a portable photographic device - as an enhancement to autobiographical memory to reduce psychological distress associated with visual hallucinations in Parkinson's Disease.
IRAS ID
181730
Contact name
Sherley Marion TORDOFF
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Northumberland Tyne & Wear NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 7 months, 0 days
Research summary
This study will focus upon 3 participants who have been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease (PD) and who are experiencing psychological distress related to the presence of complex visual hallucinations (VH), (in the absence of any other physical or systemic disease). Psychological distress in people with VH in PD can arise from the person being unable to judge what part of their visual experience is real and what results from a hallucination. A Randomised Multiple Baseline With Withdrawal Single Case Experimental Design (RMBSCED) will attempt to elucidate whether participants might be helped by regular review of images captured by Sensecam (an automated wearable photographic/visual memory device). This might be helpful because one cause of distress around visual hallucinations arises when the person is left feeling unsure as to whether the hallucinatory experience was imagined or real. Sensecam has previously been found to help improve autobiographical memory in people with Alzheimer's disease (Woodberry, Browne, Hodges, Watson Kapur & Woodberry, 2015) and Sensecam review in this study may help the participant determine whether their experience was real or hallucinatory, thereby helping to reduce distress. Such distress can impact upon other areas of the person's psychological functioning (for example, anxiety, depression, adjustment to illness and acceptance of help and assistance) which may present difficulties for family, carers and staff to manage. The participants will be required to wear the device throughout their waking day (at home only) and to review the visual material at several points throughout their day. The participants will be interviewed weekly and will initially be asked to complete initial ACE-III, anxiety, depression and hallucinatory experiences measures and a brief daily visual analogue mood scale and diary. The study participants will be adults with Parkinson's Disease (over the age of 50 with no upper age limit), conducted in the patient's home environment.
REC name
North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 2 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/NE/0051
Date of REC Opinion
26 Feb 2016
REC opinion
Unfavourable Opinion