Cognitive-motor Dual Task Training in Patients With Multiple Sclerosis

Summary

Clinical features of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) vary widely from patient to other. About the 60% of patients with MS presents cognitive deficits associated with motor disability. The principal consequences of the motor disabilities concern difficult in gait and balance. The principal cognitive deficits concern the speed in elaborating information, the complex attention and the memory. During walking in daily life, it is often required to turn the head for looking something happening in the surrounding environment, for example when a sudden noise is heard, while crossing the street, when there's something interesting around or when is required to verbally answer to someone without stopping walking. All these examples are referred to a common daily life mechanism that has been defined as dual task (DT). Considering that the attention is a limited function, divide it in two different and simultaneous tasks (motor and cognitive), cause a cognitive-motor interference (CMI) that lead to a loss of efficacy in one or in both the tasks. The main aim of the study is to verify the impact of a brief rehabilitation training that combining motor and cognitive therapy using a dual-task paradigm, on balance and gait in MS patients, compared with the traditional therapies that provide a specific postural stability rehabilitation approach. Recruited patients will be randomized in two different groups which perform two different training. Each group perform the allocated training 3 times a week for 4 weeks. All the patients will be evaluated at the baseline (T0), at the end of the training (T1) and 60 days after the end of the training (T2).

Conditions

• Multiple Sclerosis
• Cognitive Impairment
• Motor Disorders

Interventions

OTHER

Dynamic Postural Stability Training

The dynamic postural stability training, will consist of marching on unstable surface and on treadmill both with open and with closed eyes.

OTHER

Cognitive-Motor Training

The cognitive-motor training consisted of a dual task paradigm: each patient was asked to walk without stopping and was explained that, during the task, they might hear a sound, and in that case, they should have look at the stimulus 'side and recognize a visual target. This dual task was performed both marching on an unstable surface and marching on treadmill.

OTHER

Conventional Therapy

The conventional neuromotor rehabilitation will consist in muscles stretching, active-assisted mobilizations, neuromuscular facilitations, gait training and balance exercises using swinging platforms

Sponsors & Collaborators

• I.R.C.C.S. Fondazione Santa Lucia

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

TRIPLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

30 Years

Max Age

65 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2020-11-09

Primary Completion

2022-05-01

Completion

2022-10-01

Countries

• Italy

Study Locations