Effectiveness of a novel cognitive rehabilitation program based on mindfulness and reminiscence in patients with Parkinson’s Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment: a pilot study

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of a new integrated rehabilitation program based on Mindfulness and Cognitive Training (MILC-tr) on cognitive functions and mood in patients with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) or Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). Background: Mindfulness-based programs have been observed to be effective on psychological distress in neurodegenerative disorders, but few studies to date have implemented mindfulness in the context of cognitive rehabilitation. Methods: A randomized study was conducted on a sample of 16 adults (aged 66-83) with a clinical diagnosis of MCI (n=7) or idiopathic PD (n=9). Participants were enrolled in two different rehabilitation training programs, MILC-tr or Cognitive Training alone (CR-tr), for 8 weekly sessions, 50 minutes each. We assessed each patient at T0 (before treatment) and T1 (after treatment) using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II). Results: Verbal long-term memory (LTM) improved significantly after MILC-tr, compared to CR-tr (MILC-tr vs. CR.tr improvement [mean SD] = 0.89 1.05 vs. 0.14 0.38, Z = 2.38, p= .017, r= .577). There were no significant differences between the two training programs in other MoCA sub-items and BDI-II score. Conclusions: Mindfulness combined with Classical Cognitive Training may have a moderate effect on memory in patients with PD and MCI.