This page will be updated with opportunities for you to get involved in Parkinson’s research, including clinical trials and research events.
Parkinson’s Trial News
A PLACEBO-CONTROLLED CROSS-OVER TRIAL OF RHYTHMIC 10Hz MEDIAN NERVE STIMULATION FOR THE REDUCTION OF PARKINSON’S TREMOR’
Who is needed: 60 volunteers with a diagnosis of Parkinson’s and a resting tremor in one or both hands/arms.
Where: Department of Psychology, University of Nottingham
How: The trial involves 3-4 visits to determine how an active stimulation compares to a placebo stimulation. You will be randomly allocated into the active or placebo groups but volunteers in the placebo group will be able to try the active stimulation at the end of the trial.
During the first visit researchers will deliver questionnaires to assess your symptoms, tremor and wellbeing. To assess your tremor, a short video will be taken of you and researchers will also give you an accelerometer device to take home for the duration of the trial. This measures your tremor frequency. At the second visit, you will repeat the questionnaires from the first visit and then receive one session of active or placebo stimulation. On your third visit, you will repeat the questionnaires given at the first and second visits. If you are in the placebo group, you will have the opportunity to try the active stimulation during this third visit and be invited back for an additional session. You will also be asked to perform a simple movement task once during your first and last visit and twice during visits where you receive stimulation. The task involves tapping on circles on a screen as fast as you can.
We will offer an inconvenience allowance of £10 per hour, and we will contribute up to £45 per visit to help you with travel expenses for your visit to the University of Nottingham.
For further information about this work please contact: mairi.houlgreave1@nottingham.ac.uk or caitlin.smith1@nottingham.ac.uk.
There is no closing date for recruitment, but we will stop recruiting once we have 60 eligible participants.
EXPERIENCES OF PEOPLE WITH PARKINSON’S USING MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES
This trial is open until April 2026. Learn more about what is required by using this link.
PARKINSON’S TREATMENT PREFERENCE SURVEY
In this trial you are asked to explain how you feel about the more advanced
treatments for mobility issues like DBS. You have to fill in a questionnaire. Closing
date is August 15 th , 2025 and the researchers hope to get responses from 600 people with Parkinson’s.
Access and join this trial via this link.
The deadline for taking part in this research is the 15th August 2025.
THE CAN-PDP TRIAL – IS CANABIDIOL AN EFFECTIVE TREATMENT FOR PARKINSON’S PYCHOSES?
About 60% of PwP experience hallucinations – seeing/hearing/feeling things that are not really there. Many also suffer delusions (ie. strange beliefs). Collectively these are known as Parkinson’s psychoses (PDP). The CANnabidiol for Parkinson’s Disease Psychosis trial is a clinical drug trial investigating whether cannabidiol (or CBD) is a safe and tolerable treatment for reducing these psychotic symptoms in PwP.
This trial is still open for recruitment in multiple sites across England.
This study is important because the current treatment strategies for PDP are either
not very effective, safe, or convenient for everyday use, so, we are looking at
cannabidiol (or CBD) as a safer, more tolerable alternative treatment.
More information can be obtained via this link.
STEPS 2 – CAN ELECTRICAL STIMULATION IMPROVE WALKING?
Researchers from the Salisbury District Hospital and the University of Plymouth want to understand if a small electrical stimulation device can improve walking for people with Parkinson’s.
Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) is a technique that applies small electrical impulses through self-adhesive pads. These pads are placed on the skin over nerves that supply muscles that cause the foot to lift. Early testing suggests this may help to retrain movement.
The researchers need to recruit 234 people with Parkinson’s who have difficulty walking due to Parkinson’s, can walk 50 metres with walking aids, and can stand from sitting without assistance from another person.
What is involved?
If you are eligible to take part, you will either receive the study treatment, FES, for 18 weeks or your usual care for 22 weeks. You will be asked to attend visits to your local research site which are at Salisbury, Leeds, Swansea, Birmingham, Bangor or Cumbria. Those receiving the study treatment, will attend 10 visits and those receiving usual care will attend 6 visits.
The length of these visits will vary between 1 and 2 hours during which you will take part in tests to measure your movement, Parkinson’s symptoms, and you will be asked to complete surveys. You will also be asked to complete a falls and exercise diary for the duration of the study. Travel expenses will be reimbursed.
Read the participant information sheet at this link for more information. Then contact the study team by email at steps2.penctu@plymouth.ac.uk.
The deadline for taking part is 31 August 2025. Unfortunately, those receiving Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) or using other active medical implanted devices, such as a pacemaker, are unable to take part.
UNDERSTANDING EMOTION MANAGEMENT AND WELLBEING.
Click here for more information.
INVESTIGATING THE EFFICIENCY OF DIFFERENT MNS PROTOCOLS IN REDUCING TREMORS
Researchers: Dr Kat Gialopsou, Dr Mairi Houlgreave
Supervisor: Professor Stephen Jackson
Contact Details: lpzkg@nottingham.ac.uk and lpzmsh@nottingham.ac.uk
‘It has been shown that stimulation of the wrist can be used to reduce tics in Tourette Syndrome. We now want to investigate whether stimulation of the wrist can be used to reduce symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease (PD) and induce any cortical activity changes. To do this, we are using the wrist stimulation (aka median nerve stimulation) together with electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate the differences in tremor and in the cortical activity in response to a range of median nerve frequencies. Hence, we would be able to determine the optimum stimulation frequency to reduce the PD symptoms.
We are asking our participants to take part in a 3-session study at least 2 days apart between the sessions. In each session, different frequency will be tested’.
They offer a small travel allowance for those travelling from outside Nottinghamshire.
Click here to access the participant information sheet.
LEVODOPA STUDY
Consultant physician Dr Robert Skelly and Parkinson’s Nurse Lisa
Brown at Derby Royal Hospital seek information for their LEVODOPA STUDY on how you have coped if you have swallowing problems and have suddenly had to go into hospital. Dr Skelly explains:
‘Sometimes people with Parkinson’s develop difficulties swallowing their food and/or their medication. If they have to be admitted to hospital in an emergency the doctors in the hospital may need to change the usual Parkinson’s treatment to something else such as a patch or treatment through a tube in the nose. We want to investigate what we believe is a better way to help people with Parkinson’s who have swallowing problem when they are admitted to hospital unexpectedly. We will be applying to Parkinson’s UK for a grant to find a new solution to this swallowing problem. We will need your help in developing this project but first we have to collect background information to hear about your experiences. So, please contact us if:
1. You or a relative has been admitted to hospital and has not been able to take their usual Parkinson’s medications due to swallowing problems or being too unwell, and
2. Your Parkinson’s medication was changed to a rotigotine patch or given through a tube in your nose.
If both apply, please contact us by email at dhft.pd@nhs.net or by phone on this dedicated number 01332 783535. Please state you are contacting us about the “Levodopa Study”. Leave your name and phone number or email address. One of us will get back to you as soon as we can. Thank you!’
Dr Rob Skelly, Consultant Physician and Honorary Associate Professor / Lisa Brown, Parkinson’s Disease Nurse Specialist.
STEPS 2 – CAN ELECTRICAL SIMULATION IMPROVE WALKING?
Researchers from the Salisbury District Hospital and the University of Plymouth want to understand if a small electrical stimulation device can improve walking for people with Parkinson’s.
Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) is a technique that applies small electrical impulses through self-adhesive pads. These pads are placed on the skin over nerves that supply muscles that cause the foot to lift. Early testing suggests this may help to retrain movement.
The researchers need to recruit 234 people with Parkinson’s who have difficulty walking due to Parkinson’s, can walk 50 metres with walking aids, and can stand from sitting without assistance from another person.
What is involved?
If you are eligible to take part, you will either receive the study treatment, FES, for 18 weeks or your usual care for 22 weeks. You will be asked to attend visits to your local research site which are at Salisbury, Leeds, Swansea, Birmingham, Bangor or Cumbria. Those receiving the study treatment, will attend 10 visits and those receiving usual care will attend 6 visits. The length of these visits will vary between 1 and 2 hours during which you will take part in tests to measure your movement, Parkinson’s symptoms, and you will be asked to complete 6 surveys. You will also be asked to complete a falls and exercise diary for the duration of the study. Travel expenses will be reimbursed.
Read the participant information sheet for more information. Then click on the Take Part Hub button below to complete the expression of interest form or contact the study team by email at steps2.penctu@plymouth.ac.uk. Unfortunately, those receiving Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) or using other active medical implanted devices, such as a pacemaker, are unable to take part.
The deadline for taking part in this research is 31 August 2025.
CBD RESEARCH OPPORTUNITY
Can cannabidiol (CBD) reduce symptoms of hallucinations and delusions in people with Parkinson’s?
The trial aims to understand whether cannabidiol (CBD) may be useful for treating hallucination and delusion symptoms in Parkinson’s. CBD has been shown to have positive effects on other brain conditions such as epilepsy.
This trial needs 120 people with Parkinson’s who are over 40 years old, who have experienced any symptoms of hallucinations or delusions for at least one month, have been taking any Parkinson’s medications for at least one month, are not taking clozapine and have someone who can attend study visits with them.
You will either receive the study treatment (CBD) or a placebo treatment (such as a sugar pill) for 12 weeks. You will be asked to attend up to 6 visits either over the telephone, online, or at your local research centre or your home. Each visit will last between 1 and 3 hours. During the visits, you may be asked to give blood samples, complete surveys, or physical examinations. Your expenses will be reimbursed for your participation in this research.
For more information, please read the participant information sheet here or contact the Research Team by email at canpdp.trialoffice@kcl.ac.uk.
The deadline for taking part in this research is 1 March 2025.
SPEECH RESEARCH OPPORTUNITY
Could you help other people with Parkinson’s by recording your voice reading a few paragraphs and talking about your hobbies or interests?
Paul Gadd, Director of Protocol IT, is looking for volunteers with Parkinson’s to help record some speech to create an Artificial Intelligence network for converting speech to text for those living with PD. Recording can either take place on campus Loughborough University, or he can visit your home to record your speech for about 30-45 minutes, then return every 3-4 months to record changes to your speech. He can now do recordings by zoom if that is easier for you. If interested, please email info@protocolit.co.uk or call 01509 278645. More details are available at: http://www.protocolit.co.uk/parkinsons-speech-research/
RESEARCH HOT NEWS
Hot topics from the World Parkinson’s Conference: July 4th – 7th 2023 in Barcelona
Every three years the whole Parkinson’s community gets together for the World Parkinson’s Congress. This year the congress was held in Barcelona between 4–7 July.
Parkinson’s UK have put together a blog which brings you some of the research highlights. Read the blog at https://medium.com/parkinsons-uk/highlights-from-the-world-parkinson-congress-hot-topics-710accb60476.
PEMRIG 