Improving Prospective Memory in Persons With Parkinson Disease: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
BACKGROUND
Prospective memory (PM) is essential for productive and independent living and necessary for compliance with prescribed health behaviors. Parkinson disease (PD) can cause PM deficits that are associated with activity limitations and reduced quality of life. Forming implementation intentions (IIs) is an encoding strategy that may improve PM in this population.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the effect of IIs on PM performance in PD.


METHODS
This was a laboratory-based randomized controlled trial. Participants with mild to moderate PD without dementia (n = 62) performed a computerized PM test (Virtual Week) under standard instructions. One week later they were randomly allocated to perform it again while using either IIs or a rehearsal (RR) encoding strategy.


RESULTS
PM performance was better with the use of both strategies relative to standard instructions. This effect was larger for tasks with event-based compared with time-based cues. In addition, IIs resulted in a larger effect than RR for the nonrepeated tasks.


CONCLUSIONS
Strategies that support full encoding of PM cues and actions can improve PM performance among people with PD, particularly for tasks with cues that are readily available in the environment. IIs may be more effective than RR for nonrepeated tasks, but this finding warrants verification. Future work should address transfer of strategy use from the laboratory to everyday life. Targeted strategies to manage PM impairment could improve function and quality of life and significantly affect clinical care for people with PD.
1 Washington University in St Louis School of Medicine, MO, USA.
Erin R
ER
Foster
2 Washington University in St Louis, MO, USA.
Mark A
MA
McDaniel
3 Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Peter G
PG
Rendell
D000368:Aged; D000978:Antiparkinson Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D057187:Independent Living; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000150:complications* / Q000628:therapy*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D063367:Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy / Q000379:methods*
D000978:Antiparkinson Agents
Parkinson disease; executive function; intention; memory; randomized controlled trial; rehabilitation