Personalized, bilateral whole-body somatosensory cortex stimulation to relieve fatigue in multiple sclerosis

Background: The patients suffering from multiple sclerosis (MS) often consider fatigue the most debilitating symptom they experience, but conventional medicine currently offers poorly efficacious therapies. Objective: We executed a replication study of an innovative approach for relieving MS fatigue. Methods: According to the sample size estimate, we recruited 10 fatigued MS patients who received 5-day transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in a randomized, double-blind, Sham-controlled, crossover study, with modified Fatigue Impact Scale (mFIS) score reduction at the end of the treatment as primary outcome. A personalized anodal electrode, shaped on the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-derived individual cortical folding, targeted the bilateral whole-body primary somatosensory cortex (S1) with an occipital cathode. Results: The amelioration of fatigue symptoms after Real stimulation (40% of baseline) was significantly larger than after Sham stimulation (14%, p = 0.012). Anodal whole body S1 induced a significant fatigue reduction in mildly disabled MS patients when the fatigue-related symptoms severely hampered their quality of life. Conclusion: This second result in an independent group of patients supports the idea that neuromodulation interventions that properly select a personalized target might be a suitable non-pharmacological treatment for MS fatigue.

Tipo Pubblicazione: 
Articolo
Author or Creator: 
Cancelli, Andrea
Cottone, Carlo
Giordani, Alessandro
Migliore, Simone
Lupoi, Domenico
Porcaro, Camillo
Mirabella, Massimiliano
Rossini, Paolo Maria
Filippi, Maria Maddalena
Tecchio, Franca
Publisher: 
Sage, Basingstoke , Regno Unito
Source: 
Multiple sclerosis 24 (2018): 1366–1374. doi:10.1177/1352458517720528
info:cnr-pdr/source/autori:Cancelli, Andrea; Cottone, Carlo; Giordani, Alessandro; Migliore, Simone; Lupoi, Domenico; Porcaro, Camillo; Mirabella, Massimiliano; Rossini, Paolo Maria; Filippi, Maria Maddalena; Tecchio, Franca/titolo:Personalized, bilateral
Date: 
2018
Resource Identifier: 
http://www.cnr.it/prodotto/i/395884
https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1352458517720528
info:doi:10.1177/1352458517720528
http://www.scopus.com/record/display.url?eid=2-s2.0-85042838722&origin=inward
Language: 
Eng
ISTC Author: 
Ritratto di Franca Tecchio
Real name: