Multiple sclerosis fatigue relief by bilateral somatosensory cortex neuromodulation.
Multiple sclerosis-related fatigue is highly common and often refractory to medical therapy. Ten fatigued multiple sclerosis patients received two blocks of 5-day anodal bilateral primary somatosensory areas transcranial direct current stimulation in a randomized, double-blind sham-controlled, cross-over study. The real neuromodulation by a personalized electrode, shaped on the MR-derived primary somatosensory cortical strip, reduced fatigue in all patients, by 26 % in average (p = 0.002), which did not change after sham (p = 0.901). Anodal tDCS over bilateral somatosensory areas was able to relief fatigue in mildly disabled MS patients, when the fatigue-related symptoms severely hamper their quality of life. These small-scale study results support the concept that interventions modifying the sensorimotor network activity balances could be a suitable non-pharmacological treatment for multiple sclerosis fatigue.
Laboratory of Electrophysiology for Translational neuroScience (LET'S)-ISTC-CNR, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Fatebenefratelli Hospital, Isola Tiberina, 00186, Rome, Italy, franca.tecchio@istc.cnr.it.
Franca
F
Tecchio
Andrea
A
Cancelli
Carlo
C
Cottone
Giancarlo
G
Zito
Patrizio
P
Pasqualetti
Anna
A
Ghazaryan
Paolo Maria
PM
Rossini
Maria Maddalena
MM
Filippi
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D018592:Cross-Over Studies; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005221:Fatigue / Q000209:etiology* / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000150:complications*; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D065908:Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation / Q000379:methods*