Somatosensory phenotyping of people with Parkinson’s disease.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Investigating the somatosensory phenotype of people with Parkinson’s disease
IRAS ID
296844
Contact name
Kirsty Bannister
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Summary of Research
The aim of this study is to apply a multi-modal, multidisciplinary approach to enable full spectrum assessment of somatosensory function in people with Parkinson’s disease (PwP; PD). PwP may live for multiple decades after diagnosis, but around 80% experience inadequately treated constant pain that negatively impacts quality of life. Painful symptoms in PD are inconsistently described and poorly understood. Our approach is to investigate how sensitive PwP are in general to different types of pain and touch sensations, and how this might be linked to activity in specific nerve pathways that are known to impact how we feel pain. We think dysfunction in these pathways is a potential cause of constant pain in PwP that may be linked to disease progression. We wish to recruit 86 PwP with and without constant pain from the Movement Disorders Outpatient Clinic at King’s College Hospital. We will also recruit 43 healthy controls for comparison. We will create comprehensive somatosensory profiles for each participant using a range of standardised questionnaires and tests using specialised equipment and compare these between the groups. During testing we will ask people to rate the intensity and painfulness of different types of stimulations:
Measure 1) Conditioned pain modulation and temporal summation using computer-controlled cuff pressure algometry. Cuffs, like those used to measure blood pressure, will be secured around the legs or arms and inflated to different pressure levels and at different speeds. The pressure sensations will be rated. We will retest conditioned pain modulation at a second, later, time-point to measure test-retest reliability.
Measure 2) Quantitative sensory testing using the DFNS (German Research Network on Neuropathic Pain) protocols. A mixture of painful and non-painful temperature and touch stimulations will be placed on the skin of the forearm and the sensations will be rated.
Summary of Results
We have demonstrated that people with Parkinson's (PwP), regardless of their overall burden of pain, demonstrate sensory defects in pathways that ordinarily act to moderate an individual's perception of pain. These findings reveal a link between sensory processing and neurodegenerative mechanisms that underlie Parkinson's.
REC name
North West - Greater Manchester East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/NW/0297
Date of REC Opinion
29 Oct 2021
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion