Has anyone seen any studies that show PSYCHOTHERAPY has healed someone’s PD?

[pad10]

Has anyone seen any studies that show PSYCHOTHERAPY has healed someone’s PD (such as PUBMED)? One of our Heath Unlocked posters stated there were reports out there but I can’t find them. I found two where PD patients were healed of their depression but not the PD. I am aware of the info available from pdrecovery.org but I am looking for actual published medical reports if anyone happens to have links. Thanks!

[park_bear]

I seriously doubt that psychotherapy will heal any organic neurological problem. Depression can be psychological and thus in such cases can be healed by psychotherapy. Be that as may, here is a study showing improvement. The control group received no intervention, versus group psychotherapy. Group psychotherapy is a version of community building. It is no surprise that patients participating in this would receive benefits.

sciencedirect.com/science/a...

"Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether group psychotherapy was effective in improving of quality of life and would decrease the symptoms of anxiety and depression in Parkinson's disease patients. Sixteen subjects, with idiopathic Parkinson's disease recruited from the school clinical Hospital/UNICAMP. Were randomly divided in to two groups, experimental and control. Parkinson's Disease and Quality of Life – PDQL; Beck Depression Inventory – BDI; State-Trait-Anxiety Inventory – STAI were used to evaluate the patients. The statistical analysis showed significant effect of the interaction group vs. time in depression (0.0009), anxiety (<0.0001) and QuoL (0.0018) and positive changes in depression (0.0029), anxiety (0.0009) and QuoL (0.0047) for the treated group."

[enjoysalud in reply to park_bear]

Thank you!

[Niggs]

Try a different approach, search for 'psychogenic causes of parkinson's'. They say it's very rare but given how little is known, well....? After recently being hospitalised for the 2nd time, anxiety/meds/pd left me 70% paralyzed for a day, I'm waiting for a Psych. appt.

After being given every physical test there is and told there's no other pathology, little food, fluid or sleep for 24h, I hobbled out of the hospital on release........and 'ran' across a road to my transport that was double parked! For 48h I was almost symptom-free! Then back to being parkinsonian.

[pad10 in reply to Niggs]

I've had a few short periods where i've literally had no symptoms but then they come back. wasnt as dramatic as your story though. i firmly believe in the mind body connection and the science is here to back it up.... good luck with your appt.

[Moondaughter in reply to Niggs]

Symptom free for 48 hours? Were you given any meds during your hospital stay? Seems like its worth investigating to see if other environments could have such a positive dramatic effect or taking another med holiday might help....I've read other sources that claim "its all in your head"....Seems like its always a good idea to change the things we do that helps to groove and entrain the patterns of our neuronal networks though that may be easier said than done. I notice when I'm tremoring how shifting my attention from it can help -even if that is just the tip of the iceberg. Good luck with your psych appointment...Anxiety can be very intense.

[bassofspades]

If anxiety exacerbates your pd symptoms then psychotherapy to reduce the anxiety should surely have a positive effect on pd as well.

[Hidden in reply to bassofspades]

Most people with PD will have stress reactions that exacerbate their PD symptoms When i was first diagnosed my neuro advised me to up the exercise and cut the stress. This was not to cure me of PD but to improve quality of life. I am involved with neurodegenerative research and have not heard of any study that has claimed to cure PD by removing psychological negativities.

[pad10 in reply to bassofspades]

Hi Bass...I'd be good with reducing symptoms even if it wasn't a "cure". I recently started therapy to give it a try.

[pad10]

Thank you for your reply…I agree with your beliefs and am heartened to hear you are having success with your clients. I agree with your description of everyday things triggering someone with trauma…I've been reading books on trauma and these triggers can happen without our awareness…you just pop into fear or disassociation and you don’t know why. It can even be a happy feeling or feeling excited – its not always a negative experience or feeling that is a trigger, it depends what was fused with the trauma.

So you have to become a sleuth and start becoming aware of the trigger(s) so you can work with them. If you’ve had multiple traumas, like myself, it can be a bit more of a challenge. I also believe our core beliefs can be traumatizing too. Thoughts we erroneously began to believe about ourselves (and others) because of bullying or hurtful or traumatizing events…particularly when we felt powerless.

I think PD can be related to disassociation also – feeling disconnected from your body ... which is scary and also related to trauma. I just started seeing a therapist hoping to heal these issues. I know it not an overnight process and will take time but I am hopeful because I firmly believe my PD is psychologically driven. It looks like you are in Denmark. I will check out your posts. 

[ElliotGreen]

I think there may be a link between emotional stress (trauma and being stuck in a trauma response) and the bio-physiological underpinnings of PD. Janice Walton-Hadlock writes about it. The Outthinking Parkinson's guy writes about it from the polyvagal theory perspective. I was also starting to dig into articles making connections between emotional stress and oxidative stress.

[CASEY9534 in reply to ElliotGreen]

I find there is a link between my negative stress and worsening pd symptoms. My dog was sick recently and my pd symptoms were worse. I am currently working with Dr. Christion Hagaseth (over 10 yrs since diagnosis still no meds) to see if his placebo theory works. Not expecting a cure, but will count it a success if I can maintain or reduce current level of ldopa meds. Check out his website at intentional-placebo.com/

Christian believes that this program has a good chance of improving the symptoms of pd. i am currently experiencing improvment in gait which went downhill when my dog was sick.

[Hikoi]

No and you wont find any genuine studies either.