Dystonia
Conditions
Brief summary
The purpose of this research study is to investigate how the brain and motor behavior changes in individuals with dystonia in response to exercise training.
Detailed description
Dystonia is a debilitating movement disorder. It involves involuntary muscle contractions with abnormal and repetitive movements, postures, or both. The current treatments for dystonia comprise of oral medications, botulinum toxin injections, and deep brain stimulation surgery. These treatments, despite optimal management, fail to improve symptoms in more than a third of patients and the improvements are often unpredictable. We will investigate the brain adaptation effects for progressive resistance exercise-focused cervical and shoulder training (PERFECT) in patients with focal cervical dystonia with functional MRI (fMRI) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) techniques for understanding the pathophysiology of dystonia and treatment related changes. The investigators propose to enroll patients with predominantly focal cervical dystonia and compare PERFECT plus standard-of-care (SOC) therapy (n = 27) with a control group of SOC therapy (n = 27). Participants in the PERFECT + SOC group will perform physical therapist-guided exercises twice a week for 6 months and participants in the SOC group will continue receiving standard pharmacological therapies at stable doses and they will not exercise.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALProgressive resistance exercise
Patients with predominant symptoms of cervical dystonia will receive exercise training. Patients will receive progressive resistance exercise focused cervical and shoulder training (PERFECT) plus standard-of-care (SOC) therapy. Resistance training will consist of mainly muscle-strengthening exercises for the neck, shoulder and arms and a few upper trunk muscles. Resistance training will be guided by physical therapists at twice a week schedule for 6 months. These participants will also receive SOC therapy.
BEHAVIORALStandard of care
Subjects will receive SOC therapy only
Sponsors
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
University of Florida
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE (Investigator)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
30 Years to 85 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Patients have predominantly focal cervical dystonia and whose diagnosis will be confirmed by a movement disorders specialist following criteria recommended by Movement Disorders Society. * Moderate disease severity. * Are 30 to 85 years old * Are able to tolerate exercise sessions. * Reporting suboptimal clinical benefits despite receiving maximally tolerated doses of BoNT injections for the neck muscles and/or oral pharmacological therapy.
Exclusion criteria
* Participating in an alternate structured exercise program, receiving regular physical or occupational therapy * Have significant pain, spondylosis or active arthritis * Fail the Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire * Have significant cognitive impairment * Have implanted electrical device (eg, cardiac pacemaker or a DBS or a neurostimulator or metallic clip in their body, as necessitated by the risks of MRI or TMS * Active seizure disorder; not be eligible for TMS and claustrophobic for MRI portion. As necessitated by the risks of MRI or TMS, patients who have any type of implanted electrical device (such as a cardiac pacemaker or a neurostimulator), or a certain type of metallic clip in their body (i.e., an aneurysm clip in the brain), active seizure disorder are not eligible for participation in the MRI or TMS portion of the study. * Pregnancy tests will be carried out for each female subject of child bearing potential prior to the participation in the study and prior to each follow up visit (as indicated).
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Brain effects measured with fMRI | Baseline up to 6 months | To measure change in BOLD (fMRI) signals to functional connectivity in active group vs the control group. |
| Brain effects measured with TMS | Baseline up to 6 months | To measure motor cortex excitability and plasticity in TMS findings. |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed