Multiple sclerosis fatigue relief by bilateral somatosensory cortex neuromodulation

J Neurol. 2014 Aug;261(8):1552-8. doi: 10.1007/s00415-014-7377-9. Epub 2014 May 23.

Abstract

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.

Publication types

  • Clinical Trial
  • Randomized Controlled Trial
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Analysis of Variance
  • Cross-Over Studies
  • Disability Evaluation
  • Double-Blind Method
  • Fatigue / etiology*
  • Fatigue / therapy*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Multiple Sclerosis / complications*
  • Somatosensory Cortex / physiology*
  • Statistics, Nonparametric
  • Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation / methods*