Dancing Lowers Depression Linked to Parkinson's Disease: Researchers

Dancing lowers, the depression associated with Parkinson disease, and the benefits can be seen in multiple ways, a new study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research involving York University researchers shows.

The study followed 23 participants in the Sharing Dance Parkinson's program at Canada's National Ballet School who had a diagnosis of Parkinson disease, as well as 11 healthy controls, who were mostly family members or caretakers of those with Parkinson disease. The participants took weekly dance classes for 8 months, which progressed from simple leg and foot work and pliés to interpretive movements, waltzes, and more complicated, choreographed dances.

The researchers honed in on a node in the brain, the subcallosal cingulate gyrus (SCG), that has been shown in previous research to be implicated in depression. They measured mood and depression scores in all participants using the Geriatric Depression Scale before and after every class and conducted regular MRI scans at York.

The researchers found that after each dance class, reported depression rates dropped, and the effect was cumulative from class to class, with significant improvements after 8 months. They also found that the MRI scans showed reduced signals in a frontal-cortex brain region associated with emotional regulation and that in a smaller subset of the participants, a significant decrease in depression scores was correlated with changes in the subcallosal cingulate gyrus node.

Dance is thought to have a double benefit, with music activating the brain's reward centers, and the movement acting on sensory and motor circuits. Faculty of Health associate professor Joseph DeSouza, an author of the study, who has been dancing with participants in the program for 14 years, says that while dancing is not a treatment for Parkinson disease per se, the benefits are clear.

Reference: https://www.yorku.ca/news/2024/12/13/dancing-the-blues-away-seen-in-brain-imaging-in-people-with-parkinson-disease-new-study-finds/