Digital Telerehabilitation in Functional Motor Disorders

NCT06274281 | Not Yet Recruiting DMC

• 1 other identifier: TOMs_FMD
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 30
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 2

Brief Summary

Functional motor disorders (FMDs) are a broad spectrum of functional neurological disorders, including abnormal gait/balance disorders. Patients experience high degrees of disability and distress, equivalent to those suffering from degenerative neurological diseases. Rehabilitation is essential in their management. However, the current systems of rehabilitation delivery face two main challenges. Patients are not receiving the amount and kind of evidence-based rehabilitation they need due to the lack of rehabilitation professionals and experts in the field. The rehabilitation setting is not adequate for the long-term management and monitoring of these patients. Digital medicine is a new field that means "using digital tools to upgrade the practice of medicine to one that is high-definition and far more individualized." It can upgrade rehabilitation practice, addressing the existing critical components towards marked efficiency and productivity. Digital telerehabilitation will increase the accessibility to personalized rehabilitation by expert professionals placing tools to monitor the patient's health by themselves. The increasing development and availability of portable and wearable technologies are rapidly expanding the field of technology-based objective measures (TOMs) in neurological disorders. However, substantial challenges remain in (1) recognizing TOMs relevant to patients and clinicians to provide accurate, objective, and real-time assessment of gait and activity in a real-world setting and (2) their integration into telerehabilitation systems towards a digital rehabilitation transition. This feasibility study provides preliminary data on the integration of a real-time gait and activity analysis by wearable devices in the real world with a digital platform to improve the diagnosis, monitoring, and rehabilitation of patients with FMDs.

Conditions

Functional Movement Disorder

Keywords

Gait; Wearable devices; Digital telerehabilitation

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (3)

• number of patients who accept/refuse the treatment, physiotherapy compliance and falls or event near falling occurred during rehabilitation

  recruitment rate, acceptability of the intervention in terms of number of dropouts before the end of treatment, and safety in terms of reported adverse events during the treatment.

  before the intensive 5-day rehabilitation program (T0), the day after the intensive 5-day rehabilitation program (T1), after 12 weeks (at the end of the self-management plan, T2), and 24 weeks (follow-up, T3)

• Budget issues related to TOMs

  Budget issues in the use of TOMs during the EG intervention

  before the intensive 5-day rehabilitation program (T0), the day after the intensive 5-day rehabilitation program (T1), after 12 weeks (at the end of the self-management plan, T2), and 24 weeks (follow-up, T3)

• Time spent to train patients

  Time to train the patient in using the TOMs

  before the intensive 5-day rehabilitation program (T0), the day after the intensive 5-day rehabilitation program (T1), after 12 weeks (at the end of the self-management plan, T2), and 24 weeks (follow-up, T3)

Secondary Outcomes (14)

• Change in the Simplified Functional Movement Disorders Rating Scale (S-FMDRS) score

  before the intensive 5-day rehabilitation program (T0), the day after the intensive 5-day rehabilitation program (T1), after 12 weeks (at the end of the self-management plan, T2), and 24 weeks (follow-up, T3)

• Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory Scale (MFI-20) score

  before the intensive 5-day rehabilitation program (T0), the day after the intensive 5-day rehabilitation program (T1), after 12 weeks (at the end of the self-management plan, T2), and 24 weeks (follow-up, T3)

• Change in the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) score

  before the intensive 5-day rehabilitation program (T0), the day after the intensive 5-day rehabilitation program (T1), after 12 weeks (at the end of the self-management plan, T2), and 24 weeks (follow-up, T3)

• Change in the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) score

  before the intensive 5-day rehabilitation program (T0), the day after the intensive 5-day rehabilitation program (T1), after 12 weeks (at the end of the self-management plan, T2), and 24 weeks (follow-up, T3)

• Change in the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) score

  before the intensive 5-day rehabilitation program (T0), the day after the intensive 5-day rehabilitation program (T1), after 12 weeks (at the end of the self-management plan, T2), and 24 weeks (follow-up, T3)

Study Arms (2)

Experimental Group Training

EXPERIMENTAL

After the intensive 5-days rehabilitation treatment (2 hours/day, 5 days/week, for 1 week), the EG pa-tients will be encouraged to perform the self-management plan at home with the same duration and in-tensity as the CG (1 hour/session, 3 sessions/week, 12 weeks) through a Digital Telemedicine platform (Phoema GPI Platform, GPI Spa, Trento, Italy). The platform will be implemented with wearable digital devices Axivity AX3, 3-axis Logging Accel-erometer to gather objective and subjective information on the patient's motor activity. At discharge (T1), each patient in the experimental group will receive 2 wearable sensors (Axivity AX3,) for moni-toring of movement data (i.e., activity level, number of steps, distance travelled). The data will be transmitted periodically to the research center and processed. The subjective assessment of the patient's motor activity will be collected by clinical diaries focusing on gait and activity level.

Device: Digital Telerehabilitation

Control Group Training

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

After the intensive 5-days rehabilitation treatment (2 hours/day, 5 days/week, for 1 week), the CG patients will be encouraged to perform the self-management plan at home with the same duration and intensity as the EG (1 hour/session, 3 sessions/week, 12 weeks) without a Digital Telemedicine platform and wearable devices use.

Other: Usual care

Interventions

Digital Telerehabilitation DEVICE

The 5-day rehabilitation program will consist of exercises to re-establish standard movement patterns within a multidisciplinary etiological framework, according to a validated rehabilitation protocol for FMDs. Treatment will be tailored to the needs of each patient, following general treatment principles in physiotherapy for FMDs. Telemedicine sessions: the patient will perform specific exercises under the supervision of a qualified physiotherapist to provide feedback on the execution and adapt the treatment according to clinical changes/improvements. Wearable devices: each patient in the experimental group will receive 2 wearable sensors (Axivity AX3,) for monitoring of movement data (i.e., activity level, number of steps, distance travelled) during daylife activities and rehabilitation sessions. The subjective assessment of the patient's motor activity will be collected by clinical diaries focusing on gait and activity level.

Experimental Group Training

Usual care OTHER

The 5-day rehabilitation program will be the same as the telemedicine group. A self-management paper log will be given to the patient at the end of the 5-day rehabilitation program. It will include goals, activity plans, and strategies to be used for retraining movements and redirecting attention. Videos stored on the patients' digital device (i.e., tablet, mobile) will include exercises demonstration and execution and strategies to retrain movements. Patients will be encouraged to perform the self-management plan at home on their own (or with their caregivers' help) which will be reported in a paper log and video recorded. The subjective assessment of the patient's motor activity will be collected by clinical diaries focusing on gait and activity level.

Control Group Training

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• a clinically definite diagnosis of FMDs based on Gupta and Lang diagnostic criteria with the presence of distractibility maneuvers and a demonstration of positive signs
• the presence of 1 (isolated FMDs) or more clinical motor symptoms (combined FMDs), including weakness, tremor, jerks, dystonia, gait disorders, and parkinsonism
• acceptance of the diagnosis on the balance of probability
• severity and duration of motor impairment ≥1 scored with the Simplified Functional Movement Disorders Rating Scale (SFMDRS)
• acceptable level of digital skills.

You may not qualify if:

• Prominent dissociative seizures
• Mini-Mental State Examination \<23/30
• Patients who continue to express some doubt over the diagnosis.
• prominent cognitive and physical impairment that preclude signing the informed consent for participation in the study.
• Unable or refuse to attend the consecutive 5-day rehabilitation treatment. Patients will give their written informed consent after being informed about the experimental nature of the study. According to the Helsinki Declaration, the study will be carried out, approved by the Local Ethics Committee, and registered at the clinical trial.
• Particularly vulnerable population. The following cannot be included in the study: pregnant women, patients in an emergency.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Universita di Verona: lead

Study Sites (2)

Department of Neurosciences, Biomedicine and Movement Sciences, University of Verona

Verona, 37131, Italy

Location

USD Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders Unit

Verona, 37134, Italy

Location

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MeSH Terms

Conditions

Conversion Disorder

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Somatoform Disorders; Mental Disorders

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Masking Details: The outcome assessor will be blinded to the type of intervention performed by the patient.
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Full Professor

Model Details: This is an experimental single-blind randomized-controlled trial (RCT) with 2-parallel arms comparing the effects between the experimental group (EG) and control group (CG). After screening, a simple randomization list will be generated by a physician using an automated randomization system (alloca-tion ratio 1:1) to assign eligible patients to either the EG or the CG. Group allocation will be kept concealed.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: January 19, 2024
• First Posted: February 23, 2024
• Study Start: March 1, 2024
• Primary Completion: February 1, 2025
• Study Completion: February 1, 2026
• Last Updated: February 23, 2024

Record last verified: 2024-02

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

IT (2)