Objective: To investigate the impact of participation in a community orchestra on motor and non-motor symptoms in PD patients.

Background: Music undoubtfully contributes to our wellbeing: different musical interventions have been shown to be beneficial in Parkinson’s disease. Recently the Movement Disorder Society (MDS) created a task-force in 2022 to investigate strategies to improve well-being in PD.

Method: This prospective controlled cohort study included 43 patients with PD, recruited over a 6-month period and divided by preference into orchestra group (n=22) and control group (n=21). Before and after the intervention (participation in 15 rehearsals and a final concert in a period of 4 weeks), the MDS-UPDRS, MoCA, Beck Depression Scale, NMSQuest, PDQ-39, Gold-MSI, CGI-I scales were applied and a Likert scale. 4 controls were excluded due to loss to follow-up.

Results: At the first assessment, there were no significant differences between the groups regarding distribution by age, years of disease, sex, UPDRS scale, MoCA, NMSQuest, PDQ-39, Beck and Gold-MSI. Significant differences were found in mean years of schooling (11.41 ± 4.77 orchestra vs. 6.65 ± 3.18 control; p=0.001). After the intervention, orchestra participants scored significantly higher on the global impression of clinical improvement scale [CGI-I ≤3: 86.4% orchestra vs. 29.4% control, p(χ²)=0.03]. All participants in the orchestra assigned a score of 5 (very satisfied) to the experience and answered that they were likely or very likely to participate again.

Conclusion: Being part of a musical group significantly contributed to a subjective impression of clinical improvement. Controlled studies with a larger number of patients are needed and we also emphasize the importance of developing scales that can more accurately assess wellbeing in patients with PD.

« Back to 2023 International Congress

MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/parkinsound-impact-of-participation-in-an-orchestra-in-patients-with-parkinsons-disease/