Group Cognitive Stimulation Therapy for people living with Parkinson's disease and dementia

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of group Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (CST) for people living with Parkinson's disease and dementia (PDD) and their care partners.

This study used a within-subjects pre-test post-test design. Participants were volunteers living with PDD and their care partners (n = 20 each). Participants living with PDD participated in 7 wk of bi-weekly 1-h long CST group classes. They completed pre and post cognition, health-related quality of life, depressive symptoms, and relationship quality assessments, care partners completed pre and post relationship quality and caregiver burden assessments, and both groups completed a satisfaction questionnaire at post.

Among participants living with PDD, cognition improved from pre to post (p = 0.002). Care partners reported needing to provide assistance in more tasks from pre to post intervention (p = 0.04). Both groups reported 'good' to 'excellent' satisfaction on average at post.

Participation in a group CST course resulted in improved cognition in this small sample of people living with PDD. In addition, participants living with PDD and their care partners were satisfied with the program, although supporting attendance may have increased burden on care partners. Although preliminary, these findings suggest that group CST may be beneficial for people living with PDD.