The University of Nottingham in the UK has announced that a recent clinical trial has demonstrated the effectiveness of a specific speech therapy, Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (LSVT LOUD), for Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients.
Led by the university, the study indicates that LSVT LOUD significantly reduces the impact of voice problems in PD patients compared to no therapy and the standard NHS treatment.
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The trial, a collaborative effort between the universities of Nottingham and Birmingham, as well as other institutions, was conducted across 40 NHS sites in the UK.
It was coordinated by the Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit (BCTU) at the University of Birmingham.
Funded by the National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment programme, the trial recruited 388 participants with PD and Dysarthria, who were randomly assigned to three groups.
One group underwent the LSVT LOUD therapy, another received the NHS speech and language treatment, and the third group did not receive any therapy.
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By GlobalDataThe LSVT LOUD therapy, which requires 16 sessions over four weeks, involves training patients to use a normal loudness level when speaking.
In contrast, the NHS therapy is less intensive, personalised, and typically delivered over six to eight sessions.
The trial’s findings, which spanned September 2016 to March 2020, showed that LSVT LOUD was more effective than the other two approaches at reducing the impact of Dysarthria.
Notably, the NHS therapy did not exhibit any significant benefits over receiving no therapy at all.
NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre, School of Health Sciences professor Catherine Sackley said: “The impact of speech and communication problems in people with PD can cause them to feel stigmatised. It can stop them from going out, stop them from socialising, and stop them from doing day-to-day tasks such as shopping, which can have a detrimental impact on their quality of life.
“This is the first study of its kind to look at the most effective treatment options. The results clearly show that, delivered in this way, the LSVT LOUD method is both effective and it can be cost-effective.
“The NHS method as it is currently delivered is not effective. Now we have this data, we need to look at other factors and whether different therapies are delivered in different ways, which would further impact the results.”
