RESEARCH ARTICLE
Osteopathic Manual Treatment for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: A Feasibility Pilot Study
Alberto Maggiani1, *, Lucio Tremolizzo1, 2, 3, 4, Andrea Della Valentina1, Laurent Mapelli1, Silvia Sosio1, Valeria Milano1, Manuel Bianchi1, Francesco Badi1, Carolina Lavazza1, Marco Grandini1, Giovanni Corna4, Paola Prometti4, Christian Lunetta5, Nilo Riva6, Alessandra Ferri7, Francesca Lanfranconi4, for the ME&SLA Study #
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2016Volume: 10
First Page: 59
Last Page: 66
Publisher ID: TONEUJ-10-59
DOI: 10.2174/1874205X01610010059
Article History:
Received Date: 6/1/2016Revision Received Date: 18/6/2016
Acceptance Date: 24/6/2016
Electronic publication date: 26/08/2016
Collection year: 2016
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode), which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
Background:
Current interventions in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are focused on supporting quality of life (QoL) and easing pain with a multidisciplinary approach.
Objective:
Primary aim of this pilot work assessed feasibility, safety, tolerability and satisfaction of osteopathic manual treatment (OMT) in 14 ALS outpatients.
Methods:
Patients were randomized according to an initial single-blind design (12 weeks, T0-T1), in order to receive OMT (weekly for 4 weeks, and fortnightly for the following 8 weeks) versus usual-care (n=7 each group), followed by an OMT open period (T1-T2, once a week for 8 weeks, n=10). Secondary aims included blind osteopathic assessment of somatic dysfunctions (SD) for goal attainment scale (GAS) calculation, Brief Pain Inventory-short form and McGill QoL-16 items.
Results:
OMT was demonstrated feasible and safe and patients displayed high satisfaction (T1-VAS=8.34 ± 0.46; T2-VAS=8.52 ± 0.60). Considering secondary aims no significant differences emerged. Finally, at study entry (T0), a cervico-dorsal SD was found in 78% of ALS patients versus 28% of healthy matched controls (p<0.01).
Conclusion:
OMT was found feasible, safe and satisfactory in ALS. The lack of secondary aim differences can be due to the limited sample size. OMT could be an interesting option to explore in ALS.
