Long-term Follow-up of Patients Included in the EYE-TAR(MA) Study.

Family Caregivers Clinical Trial

Official title: Long-term Follow-up of Patients Included in the EYE-TAR(MA) Study: Rehabilitation of Facial Emotion Recognition in Alzheimer's Disease and Study of the Consequences on Gaze Strategy, Behavior Disorders and Family Caregivers' Burden

Status Completed

Clinical Trial Summary

EYE-TAR(MA)-Follow-Up is a non-interventionel, long-term follow-up study in subjects who participated to the study referred as EYE-TAR(MA) (NCT04730440)

EYE-TAR(MA)-Follow-Up aims to evaluate the long-term impacts of the Training of Affect Recognition TAR (an emotion recognition rehabilitation program), on social cognition abilities, evolve gaze strategies, behavioral disorders, and the caregiver's burden in Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Subjects who completed EYE-TAR(MA) study, and who have signed informed consent for this follow-up, will be eligible to enroll. They will attend one visit two years post EYE-TAR(MA) study intervention (intervention was TAR, or a "classic" cognitive stimulation program) to undergo the following evaluation: Eye-tracking recording during Ekman Faces task, Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI), Zarit scale (completed by caregiver).

Clinical Trial Description

It is commonly admitted that social cognition impairment, like deficit in facial emotion recognition or misinterpretation of others' intentions (Theory of Mind), are associated with social behavior disorders.

This kind of disorders are observed in Fronto-Temporal Dementia (FTD), Alzheimer's Dementia (AD) and Parkinson's Disease (PD), with severe deficits in FTD and lighter deficits in AD and PD. One explanation is that patients apply inappropriate visual exploration strategies to decode emotions and intentions of others.

The study EYE-TAR(MA), NCT04730440, aimed to evaluate impacts of an emotion recognition rehabilitation program, named Training of Affect Recognition (TAR), on social cognition abilities (facial emotion recognition and theory of mind) in AD. In addition, investigators hypothesized that the effect of this rehabilitation will also evolve gaze strategies, behavioral disorders, and the caregiver's burden.

EYE-TAR(MA) results showed that participants who participated to the TAR (a) recognized facial emotions better and faster, especially sadness, fear and neutral expression; (b) evolved their gaze strategies on emotional faces with increased observation of the upper part of the face (nose and / or eyes); (c) had reduced behavioral disorders and the caregiver's burden. These results were specific to the TAR, since no significant change was observed in the AD-Control group who had participated in a "classic" cognitive stimulation program.

These changes were generally maintained one month after treatment.

Because there is not long-term follow-up data for these patients, Sponsor and investigators set-up the EYE-TAR(MA)-Follow-Up study to evaluate the long-term impacts of the Training of Affect Recognition, on social cognition abilities, evolve gaze strategies, behavioral disorders, and the caregiver's burden.

Subjects who completed EYE-TAR(MA) study, and who have signed informed consent for this follow-up, will be eligible to enroll. They will attend a visit two years post EYE-TAR(MA) study intervention to undergo the following evaluation: Eye-tracking recording during Ekman Faces task, Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI), Zarit scale (completed by caregiver). ;

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Alzheimer Disease
• Caregiver Burden
• Dementia
• Family Caregivers

• NCT number: NCT05254873
• Study type: Observational
• Source: Association de Recherche Bibliographique pour les Neurosciences
• Status: Completed
• Start date: January 21, 2022
• Completion date: April 11, 2022