Theater-based therapy improves emotional well-being in Parkinson’s
Participants said working together enhanced their 'sense of social support'
An experimental theater program improved the emotional well-being of people with Parkinson’s disease, and eased their anxiety and depression, a study reports.
“Arts-based interventions could offer a novel, efficient, and inexpensive tool to complement pharmacological therapy,” the study’s researchers wrote. The program outperformed an at-home memory and attention program at improving emotional well-being, but the two interventions had similar effects on other mood and neuropsychiatric symptoms. While neither had a significant effect on objective cognitive abilities, the theater program led to gains in participants’ perceived cognitive function. The study, “Efficacy of a theatre-based intervention in patients with Parkinson’s disease,” was published in Arts & Health.
A progressive neurodegenerative disease marked primarily by tremors and movement difficulties, Parkinson’s can also cause nonmotor symptoms, such as trouble concentrating, depression, anxiety, and fatigue. While most treatments target motor issues, there are fewer options for managing nonmotor symptoms, even though these can significantly affect patients’ quality of life.
Participating in art therapies has been shown to ease psychological symptoms in a number of health conditions, including Parkinson’s. “Despite the growing interest in arts as social prescriptions … the scientific evidence supporting their benefits remains limited or not robust enough for most health disorders,” the researchers wrote. Few studies have examined theater-based therapy for Parkinson’s, but one found the approach led to increased emotional well-being for patients.
Positive impact from working as a group
Here, researchers recruited 34 participants, all who took levodopa-based therapies throughout the study, to investigate further the possible role of a theater-based intervention in Parkinson’s. Half the participants received cognitive exercises in weekly two-hour sessions at home, while the other half attended a specialized program at Teatre Lliure in Barcelona that included a tour, five performances, and five workshops, each lasting two hours. Each intervention lasted for three months.
Both groups reported significantly fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression after the therapy concluded. They also “self-rated as having better cognitive functioning after the intervention,” wrote the researchers, who noted this didn’t translate to better measured cognition in tests of memory and executive function, however.
Only the theater group reported significantly higher emotional well-being, although the cognitive training group did report a slight, non-statistically significant improvement in this domain.
The theater participants completed brief surveys after each session about their experience, and rated the tour, performances, and workshops as highly interesting. Most said “working as a group enhanced their sense of social support as patients,” the researchers wrote.
Gathering together may have been an important part of the program’s positive impact. “Group activities can help reduce feelings of isolation, foster emotional connections among participants, and increase empathy by recognizing that others share similar experiences in facing the challenges of the disease,” the researchers wrote. The cognitive training participants completed their intervention at home and without a group of peers, which may have reduced its effects on emotional well-being.
Another possible contributor could have been the nature of the theater therapy, particularly the workshops, which focused on emotional expression. Explicitly addressing emotions in a supportive therapeutic context may have helped the participants work through their own emotional challenges, easing symptoms.
The short length of the interventions may have affected its results. A previous study of theater therapy for Parkinson’s lasted three years, much longer than this study’s three months. “A longer duration or a more intense intervention might lead to more reliable benefits in attention and memory,” the researchers wrote.
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