Safety and Tolerability of a Wearable, Vibrotactile Stimulation Device for Parkinson’s Disease

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

Stephen Braren¹  Taylor Patterson²  David Putrino²  Adam Fry²  Laura Tabacof² 

[1] Department of Applied Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, United States;Department of Rehabilitation and Human Performance, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States;

关键词: Parkinson’s disease;    resting tremor;    wearable technologies;    vibration;    UPDRS;    vibrotactile;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fnhum.2021.712621

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Background: Resting tremor is a cardinal symptom of Parkinson’s disease (PD) that contributes to the physical, emotional, and economic burden of the disease.Objective: The goal of this study was to investigate the safety, tolerability, and preliminary effectiveness of a novel wearable vibrotactile stimulation device on resting tremor in individuals with PD.Methods: Using a randomized cross-over design, subjects received two different vibrotactile stimulation paradigms (high amplitude patterned and low amplitude continuous) on two separate laboratory visits. On each visit, resting tremor was video recorded for 10 min at baseline and while the vibrotactile stimulation was applied. Tremor severity was scored by a blinded clinician.Results: Both vibration paradigms were well safe and well tolerated and resulted in a reduction in resting tremor severity with a moderate effect size (n = 44, p < 0.001, r = 0.37–0.54). There was no significant difference between the two vibration paradigms (p = 0.14).Conclusion: Short durations of vibrotactile stimulation delivered via wearable devices were safe and well tolerated and may attenuate resting tremor severity in individuals with PD. The sample size as well as the potential preliminary effectiveness revealed by two arms of the study could not eliminate the potential for a placebo effect.

【 授权许可】

Unknown