NCT02205216

Can tDCS Enhance Efficacy of Rehabilitative Intervention for Freezing of Gait in Parkinson's Disease?

Can Transcranial Direct Stimulation Enhance the Efficacy of a Rehabilitative Intervention for the Treatment of Freezing of Gait in Parkinson's Disease? A Double Blind Randomized Controlled Study

• Status: Unknown
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 40 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 30 Years – 80 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Freezing of gait in Parkinson's disease (PD) is a major cause of disability and falls and responds often incompletely to conventional therapy. The pathogenesis remains largely unknown and therapeutic alternatives are needed. Rehabilitative interventions that consist of learning cognitive strategies with sensory cueing to prevent and to overcome FOG represent the most efficacious intervention, but difficulties in learning and execution of these cognitive strategies are the main cause of failure. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) enhances motor task learning and execution in patients with PD and might enhance the efficacy of rehabilitative interventions. This study intends to address the following question whether tDCS can enhance the efficacy of rehabilitative interventions in the treatment of freezing of gait in Parkinson's disease?

Conditions

• Parkinson Disease

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	Active tDCS	anode over the motor and premotor cortex with cathodes placed over both mastoids. TDCS will be applied for 20 minutes at 2 mA.
DEVICE	Sham tDCS	anode and cathode placed 1 cm apart over the forehead and DC (1mA) applied for 1-2 min, short-circuited through the skin creating the same temporary "tingling" sensation without effects on the brain.
BEHAVIORAL	Rehabilitation Therapy	All patients will undergo a rehabilitation therapy intervention (2x a week for 4 weeks = 8 intervention sessions) with simultaneous sham or active tDCS. The trained physiotherapist will follow a standardized program with checklist. Each of the 8 training session will last approximately 45min. The rehabilitative interventions include: 1. cognitive training: attentional strategies (mental counting, mental obstacle) 2. transfer training: everyday activities 3. motor training (walking) with sensory cueing (visual, acoustic, cane, ball) The rehabilitation therapy is divided into two sessions both including a 5 minutes warm-up and the learning of cueing and movement strategies based on different modalities (cognitive, visual, tactile and auditory).

Timeline

• Start date: 2014-09-01
• Primary completion: 2017-08-01
• First posted: 2014-07-31
• Last updated: 2015-07-07

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Switzerland