Innovating Parkinson's Care: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Telemedicine Depression Treatment

Background For several decades, a myriad of factors have contributed to the inadequate diagnosis and management of depression in Parkinson's disease (PD), leaving up to 60% of significantly symptomatic patients untreated. Poor access to evidence-based neuropsychiatric care is one major barrier to achieving optimal Parkinson's outcomes. Objective The goal of this study was to compare the efficacy of individual Parkinson's-informed, video-to-home cognitive-behavioral therapy (experimental group), to clinic-based treatment as usual (control group), for depression in PD. Method Ninety United States military veterans with clinical diagnoses of both depression and PD were computer-randomized (1:1) to either the experimental or control group; randomization was stratified by baseline antidepressant use and blind to all other baseline data. The acute treatment period spanned 10 weeks and was followed by a 6-month extension phase. The Hamilton Depression Rating Scale was the a priori primary outcome. Depression treatment response was defined as a score <= 2 on the Clinical Global Impression Improvement Scale. All statistical analyses were intent to treat. Results Video-to-home cognitive-behavioral therapy outperformed clinic-based treatment as usual across three separate depression measures (P < 0.001). Effects were observed at the end of acute treatment and maintained through 6-month follow-up. Number needed to treat (based on treatment response classification) was 2.5 with an absolute risk reduction of 40%. Conclusion Video-to-home cognitive-behavioral therapy may be an effective intervention to bypass access barriers to specialized, evidence-based depression care in PD and to address the unmet neuropsychiatric treatment needs of the Parkinson's community. (c) 2021 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society

Automated summary

This study compared the efficacy of individual Parkinson's-informed, video-to-home cognitive-behavioral therapy with clinic-based treatment for depression in Parkinson's disease. The results showed that video-to-home cognitive-behavioral therapy outperformed clinic-based treatment across multiple depression measures, with effects maintained through 6 months follow-up.