Metacognitive Therapy and Neuro-physiotherapy as a Treatment for Functional Movement Disorders

Summary

Patients with functional movement disorders (FMD) present with abnormal movements incompatible with symptoms of well-defined neurological disorders and are not associated with structural abnormality of the nervous system. FMD are very common. However, the pattern of care of these patients is highly inconsistent and most patients feel dissatisfied with the treatment they receive. One reason for this unsatisfactory scenario is that there are no generally accepted therapeutic guidelines for FMD.

Therefore, treatment strategies are urgently needed. Recent neurophysiological studies suggest common underlying disease mechanism across FMD patients, particularly abnormal allocation of attentional resources. Conceptually, this calls for therapeutic approaches, in which attention re-focusing is trained. In this respect, neuro-physiotherapy (NPT) is based on the physical movement retraining by demonstrating that normal movement is possible, to facilitate patients' confidence into the own movement capacity. Based on the current literature, the investigators suggest that NPT is a feasible and effective treatment options in FMD population. However, the proportion of patients fully accepting and improving from NPT was limited. FMD patients might be more receptive to NPT if additional specialized psychotherapy approaches, e.g., metacognitive therapy (MCT) is offered. MCT focusses on patients believes about their own mind and cognition (metacognition). It explains how dysfunctional patterns of thinking and self-awareness can lead to and maintain FMD and in particular trains patients to consciously (re-)focus their attention away from unpleasant or disturbing mental processes. Thus, the investigators aim to analyze, in addition to NPT only, the feasibility and treatment efficacy of a combination of NPT and MCT.

The investigators will apply therapy frequently (2 times 1 hour sessions per week over 10 weeks) and patients will be instructed for an additional home-based training. Effectiveness will be analyzed up to 12 month after the intervention by validated, FMD-specific, blinded video ratings.

Importantly, FMD patients have been shown to have the potential for a full recovery if sufficient treatment is applied. Therefore, the therapeutic approaches of the clinical feasibility trial, if successful, are expected to have immediate and strong impact on the care of FMD patients including an improvement in quality of life, and to reduce health care system burdens.

Conditions

• Conversion Disorder

Interventions

OTHER

Neuro-physiotherapy

Neuro-Physiotherapy will be done in Intervention group I

OTHER

Combination of metacognitive behavioral therapy and Neuro-physiotherapy

Combination of metacognitive behavioral therapy and Neuro-physiotherapy will be done in intervention group II

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Anne Weissbach, MD · Institute of Systems Motor Science, University Clinic of Schleswig-Holstein

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

100 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2022-05-20

Primary Completion

2025-05-31

Completion

2025-05-31

Countries

• Germany

Study Locations