A Randomized Placebo-Controlled Study of a Transcranial Photobiomodulation Helmet in Parkinson's Disease: Post-Hoc Analysis of Motor Outcomes

Claire McGee; Ann Liebert; Brian Bicknell; Vincent Pang; Vivian Isaac; Craig S McLachlan; Hosen Kiat; Geoffrey Herkes

doi:10.3390/jcm12082846

A Randomized Placebo-Controlled Study of a Transcranial Photobiomodulation Helmet in Parkinson's Disease: Post-Hoc Analysis of Motor Outcomes

J Clin Med. 2023 Apr 13;12(8):2846. doi: 10.3390/jcm12082846.

Authors

Claire McGee¹, Ann Liebert^{2

3

4}, Brian Bicknell⁴, Vincent Pang⁴, Vivian Isaac⁵, Craig S McLachlan⁶, Hosen Kiat^{4

6

7

8

9}, Geoffrey Herkes^{8

10}

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Health Sciences, Torrens University Australia, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia.
² School of Medical Sciences, University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW 2050, Australia.
³ Department of Research and Governance, Sydney Adventist Hospital, Wahroonga, NSW 2076, Australia.
⁴ NICM Health Research Institute, University of Western Sydney, Westmead, NSW 2145, Australia.
⁵ School of Allied Health, Exercise & Sports Sciences, Faculty of Science & Health, Charles Sturt University, Albury Campus, Albury, NSW 2640, Australia.
⁶ Centre for Healthy Futures, Torrens University Australia, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia.
⁷ Faculty of Medicine, Human and Health Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia.
⁸ College of Health and Medicine, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
⁹ Cardiac Health Institute, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia.
¹⁰ Department of Neurology, Sydney Adventist Hospital, Wahroonga, NSW 2076, Australia.

Abstract

Emerging evidence is increasingly supporting the use of transcranial photobiomodulation (tPBM) to improve symptoms of neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson's disease (PD). The objective of this study was to analyse the safety and efficacy of tPBM for PD motor symptoms. The study was a triple blind, randomized placebo-controlled trial with 40 idiopathic PD patients receiving either active tPBM (635 nm plus 810 nm LEDs) or sham tPBM for 24 min per day (56.88J), six days per week, for 12 weeks. The primary outcome measures were treatment safety and a 37-item MDS-UPDRS-III (motor domain) assessed at baseline and 12 weeks. Individual MDS-UPDRS-III items were clustered into sub-score domains (facial, upper-limb, lower-limb, gait, and tremor). The treatment produced no safety concerns or adverse events, apart from occasional temporary and minor dizziness. There was no significant difference in total MDS-UPDRS-III scores between groups, presumably due to the placebo effect. Additional analyses demonstrated that facial and lower-limb sub-scores significantly improved with active treatment, while gait and lower-limb sub-scores significantly improved with sham treatment. Approximately 70% of participants responded to active treatment (≥5 decrease in MDS-UPDRS-III score) and improved in all sub-scores, while sham responders improved in lower-limb sub-scores only. tPBM appears to be a safe treatment and improved several PD motor symptoms in patients that responded to treatment. tPBM is proving to be increasingly attractive as a possible non-pharmaceutical adjunct therapy.

Keywords: Parkinson’s disease; mobility; photobiomodulation; transcranial.

Grants and funding

The study was partly funded by Symbyx Pty Ltd., which also supplied the “SYMBYX Neuro” and sham helmets for the trial. The funder was not involved in the study design, collection, analysis, interpretation of data, the writing of this manuscript, or the decision to submit it for publication. The employee of Symbyx (V.P.) had no role in participant assessment, data analysis or manuscript preparation.