Multisensory Stimulation in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Disease: Case Report of an Innovative Proposal through Immersive Virtual Reality

Physical–cognitive stimulation has emerged as a promising strategy for improving the quality of life of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This case study reports on the use of immersive virtual reality (IVR) as a tool for multisensory stimulation in a woman with ALS (76 years old; 1...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied sciences 2024-10, Vol.14 (20), p.9238
Main Authors: Casal-Moldes, Ángel, Campo-Prieto, Pablo, Rodríguez-Fuentes, Gustavo, Cancela-Carral, José Mª
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Anxiety
Brain research
Case reports
Case studies
cognitive rehabilitation
Depression, Mental
Disease
Diseases
Exercise
Geriatrics
neurodegenerative diseases
Patients
physical therapy
Quality of life
Questionnaires
Rehabilitation
Spain
Virtual reality
virtual reality exposure therapy
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Summary:Physical–cognitive stimulation has emerged as a promising strategy for improving the quality of life of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This case study reports on the use of immersive virtual reality (IVR) as a tool for multisensory stimulation in a woman with ALS (76 years old; 11 years since diagnosis; stage 2). The program consisted of IVR stimulation sessions (three sessions per week for 12 weeks). The results showed that the implementation of the program was feasible and safe (no adverse symptoms on the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire), as well as easy to execute (>80% on the System Usability Scale). Additionally, the participant reported improvements in aspects related to her mental health (44% depression and 20% anxiety) and improvements in her quality of life, and she also maintained her values in her functional capacity. This study presents novel and important findings by demonstrating the feasibility of implementing physical–cognitive stimulation programs with IVR in a person with ALS, allowing for multisensory stimulation with commercially available hardware and software and the generation of benefits in their health-related quality of life and mental health.
ISSN:2076-3417
2076-3417
DOI:10.3390/app14209238