Background: Children diagnosed with cerebral palsy (CP) often experience various limitations, particularly in gross motor function and activities of daily living. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a noninvasive brain stimulation technique that has been used to improve movement, gross motor function, and activities of daily living.

Objective: This study aims to evaluate the potential additional effects of physiotherapy combined with tDCS in children with CP in comparison with physiotherapy only.

Methods: This is a 2-arm randomized controlled trial that will compare the effects of tDCS as an adjunctive treatment during rehabilitation sessions to rehabilitation without tDCS. Children with CP classified by the Gross Motor Function Classification System as levels I and II will be randomly assigned to either the sham + rehabilitation group or the tDCS + rehabilitation group. The primary outcome will be the motor skills assessed using the Gross Motor Function Measure domain E scores, and the secondary outcome will be the measurement scores of the children's quality of life. The intervention will consist of a 10-day stimulation protocol with tDCS spread over 2 weeks, with stimulation or sham tDCS administered for 20 minutes at a frequency of 1 Hz, in combination with physiotherapy. Physical therapy exercises will be conducted in a circuit based on each child's baseline Gross Motor Function Measure results. The participants' changes will be evaluated and compared in both groups. Intervenient features will be tested.

Results: Data collection is ongoing and is expected to be completed by January 2025. A homogeneous sample and clear outcomes may be a highlight of this protocol, which may allow us to understand the potential use of tDCS and for whom it should or should not be used.

Conclusions: A study with good evidence and clear outcomes in children with CP might open an avenue for the potential best use of neurostimulation.

Trial Registration: Brazilian Registry of Clinical Trials RBR-104h4s4y; https://tinyurl.com/47r3x2e4.

International Registered Report Identifier (irrid): PRR1-10.2196/52922.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11094605PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/52922DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

gross motor
20
motor function
20
transcranial direct
8
direct current
8
current stimulation
8
cerebral palsy
8
function activities
8
activities daily
8
tdcs
8
tdcs children
8

Similar Publications

Background: Cerebral palsy (CP), traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI), and muscular dystrophy (MD), among the various other neurological disorders, are major global health problems because they are chronic disorders with no curative treatments at present. Current interventions aim to relieve symptoms alone and therefore emphasize the necessity for new approaches.

Objective: This study aims to assess the safety and efficacy of autologous bone marrow-derived mononuclear cell (BM-MNC) therapy in patients with CP, traumatic SCI, and MD.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Effects of Hippotherapy and Horse-Riding Simulators on Gross Motor Function in Children with Cerebral Palsy: A Systematic Review.

J Clin Med

January 2025

Department of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Sports, Universidad Europea de Madrid, 28670 Villaviciosa de Odón, Spain.

: Cerebral palsy (CP) can have a negative impact on gross motor function. Conventional hippotherapy and horse-riding simulators (HRS) have shown promising results on gross motor function in populations with neurological disorders. This review aims to update the knowledge on the effectiveness of hippotherapy on gross motor function in children with CP.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cerebral palsy is a complex lifespan disability caused by a lesion to the immature brain. Evaluation of interventions for children with cerebral palsy requires valid and reliable outcome measures. Motor development curves and reference percentiles for The Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM-66) are valuable tools for following, predicting, comparing, and evaluating changes in gross motor skills.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Those with neurological disorders like cerebral palsy (CP) may experience an altered impact of social determinates of health on child functioning and well-being. We investigated the relationship between relative social advantage and medical and functional outcomes in a large cohort of children, adolescents and young adults with CP (n = 1269, aged 2-84 years).

Methods: We extracted data from the Cerebral Palsy Research Registry and dichotomized a range of independent factors (income, ethnicity and race) into advantaged and disadvantaged/vulnerable and a range of medical and functional outcomes (gross motor, manual ability, behaviour, breathing, nutritional intake, hearing, seizures, language and vision) and computed odds ratios using logistic regression.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Supplementary motor area (SMA) syndrome is characterized by contralateral akinesia and mutism, and frequently occurs following resection of tumors involving the superior frontal gyrus. The frontal aslant tract (FAT), involved in functional connectivity of the supplementary area and other related large-scale brain networks, is implicated in the pathogenesis of, and recovery from, SMA syndrome. However, intraoperative neuromonitoring of the FAT is inconsistent and poorly reproducible, leading to a high rate of postoperative SMA syndrome.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!