Date of Award

8-1-2011

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Organizational Unit

Morgridge College of Education

First Advisor

Cynthia McRae, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Dan Russell

Third Advisor

Barbara Vollmer

Fourth Advisor

Frédérique Chevillot

Keywords

Longitudinal, Parkinson's Disease, Physical functioning, Quality of life, Social support

Abstract

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a chronic and progressive condition that affects the physical, emotional, and social functioning of individuals. Freed et al. (2001) conducted a double-blind sham-controlled trial to investigate the effectiveness of fetal tissue transplantation for the treatment of advanced PD. The authors of that study examined the effects of the surgery across the dimensions of physical and neurological functioning. A quality of life (QoL) study was conducted to determine if there were differences in QoL when comparing those who received the fetal tissue transplantation with those who received the sham surgery (McRae et al., 2004).

While there is little research on the effectiveness of fetal tissue transplantation as a treatment for PD, there is even less literature on longitudinal effects of this treatment. This study examined the longitudinal QoL among participants who received the fetal transplant surgery beginning in 1995. Participants included 11 people who were in the parent (Freed et al., 2001) and original QoL (McRae, 2004) studies. Participants completed several questionnaires that assessed many of the dimensions of QoL. Information from the questionnaires was compared to data collected before surgery, and at one and two years following surgery. Results indicated that Social functioning at baseline significantly predicted participants' Physical functioning over ten years later.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Emily B. Fazio

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

en

File Size

120 p.

Discipline

Counseling psychology, Psychology



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