Objective: This review assesses the effects of choral singing as an adjunct therapy for Parkinson’s disease (PD).

Background: PD is the second-most common neurodegenerative disease, but no disease-modifying pharmacologic agents have yet been developed as treatment. Adjunct therapies remain critical in the standard of care for persons with PD and are used in combination with medication for management of PD symptoms. One such intervention, choral singing or group singing, is an increasingly popular therapy for individuals with Parkinson’s Disease.

Method: The framework used for this review was the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews Checklist (PRISMA-SC). The search was performed using the NCBI database with the search terms: “choral singing” OR “group singing” AND “Parkinson.” The initial search produced 26 results. The search was filtered to include only articles published within the last 10 years, reducing the pool to 21. The results were narrowed to 10 due to duplicates, studies not including PD, and studies not focused on choral/group singing. The final 10 studies with total of 238 patients were reviewed for the effects of choral singing on Parkinson’s disease. Key information included study design, sample size, intervention details, and outcomes related to motor, cognitive, and psychological domains.

Results: The majority (90%, 9/10) of trials note significant improvements in quality of life. 7/10 (70%) articles noted improvement in psychological domains regarding mood. 5/10 (50%) noted improvement in physical domains, specifically vocal quality. One study (1/10, 10%) with a virtual choir found no improvement to quality of life in psychological or motor domains. 10% (1/10) of the studies examined noted improvement in cognition.

Conclusion: Choral singing has shown significant improvement in addressing symptoms of PD in quality of life, mood, and vocal quality. Limitations include varied approaches to implementing group singing and variations in outcomes assessed. Further research should be done on possible cognitive improvements and standardized approaches to implementing choral singing. Choral singing is a complementary intervention with a low risk safety profile and is effective at improving quality of life and speech-symptoms. It shows promise as a useful intervention for clinicians to recommend to patients.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/is-it-better-to-sing-together-a-review-of-choral-singing-for-people-with-parkinsons-disease/