Clinical Trials Logo

Clinical Trial Summary

Despite the need for cognitive rehabilitation, there is a paucity of well-designed research studies to investigate treatment approaches or their effectiveness in MS. Most of published studies suffer from significant methodological flaws including small sample size, short follow-up periods, and lack of specific outcome criteria to determine improvement. O'Brien et al. (2008) recently reviewed 16 studies of cognitive rehabilitation designed to persons with MS and found only 4 class I studies and only one class I study of rehabilitation of attention deficits. Methodologically rigorous research is needed to confirm the preliminary results reported by these studies and determine the effectiveness and efficacy of cognitive rehabilitation interventions in attention deficits in MS. O'Brien et al. listed limitations found in previous studies that must be addressed in future studies. The present study was designed according to these recommendations. It is a randomized, controlled study, in parallel groups, evaluator blinded.

Number of participants: 25 RRMS patients in the active group, 25 RRMS patients in the control group and 25 healthy subjects.

The protocol will be proposed to RRMS patients AFFILIATED TO FRENCH SOCIAL SECURITY referred to the investigators center by practicing neurologists and fulfilling the inclusion criteria for screening.

Patients will be randomised between two groups. The active group (25 patients) will be treated by rehabilitation. Individual rehabilitation procedures will be focused on attention, executive functions and IPS. The program will be tailored to each patient cognitive status depending on the impairments identified during the initial assessment while maintaining a systematic work on attention and executive functions. A total of 50 sessions lasting one hour at a rate of 3 sessions per week for a total period of 4 months will be proposed. Patients randomized in the other group will participate to group session every week without specific cognitive rehabilitation. 25 healthy control subjects (group C), matched to patients for education, gender and age with patients of groups A/B will have the same evaluation procedures than patients.

Evaluation will be performed at baseline, after 4 months (end of treatment period) and after 8 months. Evaluation will include clinical testing, cognitive battery (paper/pencil and computer tests), cognitive ecological evaluation (Computer test of attention in a virtual reality environment and driving test on a driving simulator), questionnaires about daily life and MRI (fMRI and MRI). All patients and healthy subjects will undergo the fMRI protocol using a paradigm previously published by the investigators group (Bonnet et al., 2009): Go/No-go paradigm with increasing difficulty during four successive conditions (the Tonic Alertness task, Go/No-go (IG), reversal Go/No-go (RG), and complex Go/No-go (CG). In a previous study the investigators observed compensatory activation in MS patients as compared to healthy controls for the three first conditions and a saturation of compensatory processes for the more complex. In the present study, the investigators hypothesize that a similar pattern will occur at baseline and that cognitive rehabilitation will improve brain compensation at the fourth level of complexity.


Clinical Trial Description

: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is the most frequent disabling neurological disease in young adults. Over the past two decades, cognitive impairment in MS has received increasing interest. Although for a long time described in MS text books, it has been underestimated until recently. It is now accepted as an important feature of MS with a high impact on working and social abilities. The cognitive disorders in MS are dominated by a slowdown in information processing speed (IPS), as well as disturbances of attention and memory. The nature of cognitive findings suggest that the impairments depend on the integrity of large-scale cortical integrative processes, which involve long-distance white matter projections which can be impaired due to diffuse demyelinating injury in patients with MS. At the early stages of MS there is increasing evidence that neuroplasticity, the ability of the brain to respond to various insults, allows adaptive reorganization of cognitive functions to limit impairment, despite widespread tissue damage. Recently, we showed that at the early stages of RRMS compensatory capacities are relatively maintained, especially in highly-educated patients suggesting that cognitive training might be useful. The requirement of cerebral compensatory mechanisms to perform the cognitive tests was postulated in MS patients on the basis of functional MRI (fMRI) studies. By using a go/no go task of increasing complexity in a fMRI study in RRMS patients, we observed that a limitation of this compensatory cerebral recruitment appears when the attentional solicitations reach a particular level of difficulty. We postulate that a cognitive training program may help to maintain these compensatory capacities. Therefore, we propose to evaluate the effect of the program on brain activation using a task with several levels of attention requirement (increased attention load) by using fMRI and to evaluate in parallel its clinical effect and its impact in daily activities. ;


Study Design

Allocation: Randomized, Endpoint Classification: Efficacy Study, Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment, Masking: Single Blind (Outcomes Assessor), Primary Purpose: Treatment


Related Conditions & MeSH terms


NCT number NCT01207856
Study type Interventional
Source University Hospital, Bordeaux
Contact
Status Completed
Phase N/A
Start date May 2011
Completion date February 2016

See also
  Status Clinical Trial Phase
Completed NCT05528666 - Risk Perception in Multiple Sclerosis
Completed NCT03608527 - Adaptive Plasticity Following Rehabilitation in Multiple Sclerosis N/A
Recruiting NCT05532943 - Evaluate the Safety and Efficacy of Allogeneic Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Patients With Multiple Sclerosis Phase 1/Phase 2
Completed NCT02486640 - Evaluation of Potential Predictors of Adherence by Investigating a Representative Cohort of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Patients in Germany Treated With Betaferon
Completed NCT01324232 - Safety and Efficacy of AVP-923 in the Treatment of Central Neuropathic Pain in Multiple Sclerosis Phase 2
Completed NCT04546698 - 5-HT7 Receptor Implication in Inflammatory Mechanisms in Multiple Sclerosis
Active, not recruiting NCT04380220 - Coagulation/Complement Activation and Cerebral Hypoperfusion in Relapsing-remitting Multiple Sclerosis
Completed NCT02835677 - Integrating Caregiver Support Into MS Care N/A
Completed NCT03686826 - Feasibility and Reliability of Multimodal Evoked Potentials
Recruiting NCT05964829 - Impact of the Cionic Neural Sleeve on Mobility in Multiple Sclerosis N/A
Withdrawn NCT06021561 - Orofacial Pain in Multiple Sclerosis
Completed NCT03653585 - Cortical Lesions in Patients With Multiple Sclerosis
Recruiting NCT04798651 - Pathogenicity of B and CD4 T Cell Subsets in Multiple Sclerosis N/A
Active, not recruiting NCT05054140 - Study to Evaluate Efficacy, Safety, and Tolerability of IMU-838 in Patients With Progressive Multiple Sclerosis Phase 2
Completed NCT05447143 - Effect of Home Exercise Program on Various Parameters in Patients With Multiple Sclerosis N/A
Recruiting NCT06195644 - Effect of Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation on Cortical Excitability and Hand Dexterity in Multiple Sclerosis Patients Phase 1
Completed NCT04147052 - iSLEEPms: An Internet-Delivered Intervention for Sleep Disturbance in Multiple Sclerosis N/A
Completed NCT03591809 - Combined Exercise Training in Patients With Multiple Sclerosis N/A
Completed NCT03594357 - Cognitive Functions in Patients With Multiple Sclerosis
Completed NCT03269175 - BENEFIT 15 Long-term Follow-up Study of the BENEFIT and BENEFIT Follow-up Studies Phase 4