As discussed in my short video, memory training for dementia is a strategy we all need to engage as we age whether our current age is 20 or 80!
Information about the Parkinsons Recovery Mindwork challenges is here:
https://www.parkinsonsrecovery.com/parkinsons-recovery
Below is an abstract from a study that examined the usefulness of memory training for 76
individuals currently diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease:
Parkinsonism Relat Disord. 2020 Mar;72:13-22. doi: 10.1016. Effects of working memory training in patients with Parkinson’s disease without cognitive impairment: A randomized controlled trial. Anja Ophey , Kathrin Giehl , Sarah Rehberg , Carsten Eggers , Paul Reker , Thilo van Eimeren , Elke Kalbe
Objective: To determine the feasibility and evaluate effects of a computerized working memory (WM) training (WMT) in patients with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) on cognitive and clinical outcomes.
Methods: 76 patients with PD without cognitive impairment were randomized to either the WMT group (n = 37), who participated in a 5-week adaptive WMT, or a passive waiting-list control group (CG, n = 39). Patients underwent clinical and neuropsychological examination at baseline, after training, and at 3-months follow-up, with verbal WM and non-verbal WM as primary outcomes. Outcome assessors were blinded for group allocation.
Results: All WMT participants completed the training successfully and reported high levels of motivation for and satisfaction with the training. Repeated-measures, linear mixed-effects models revealed positive training effects for the WMT group compared to the CG in verbal working memory with a small relative effect size 0.39 [95%CI 0.05; 0.76] for the 3-months follow-up only. No other reliable training effects in cognitive and clinical variables were found for either point of time.
Conclusions: In this randomized controlled trial, memory training for dementia is feasible and yielded some evidence for 3-months follow-up training gains in patients with Parkinsons disease. WMT might be an effective intervention to prevent cognitive decline in this patient group.
Robert Rodgers PhD
Founder 2004
Parkinsons Recovery
Road to Recovery from Parkinsons Disease