Title : Efficacy and safety of transcranial pulse stimulation (TPS) in older adults with mild neurocognitive disorder – An open-label trial
Abstract:
There are limited effectiveness and potential alarming side effects of pharmacological approach for the Neurocognitive disorder (NCD). Transcranial pulse stimulation (TPS) has been shown to be a potential tool to bring the benefit. We have conducted an open-label study. Older adults with the diagnosis of mild NCD received 2-week 6 sessions neuro-navigated TPS interventional. 19 eligible subjects (with 12 females and 7 males) were recruited in this study and completed the whole TPS interventions. Repeated measures ANOVA showed statistically significant effects of time on HK-MoCA (F (3,54) = 4.99, p = 0.004), 30-second interval of Verbal Fluency Test (F (3,54) = 2.94, p = 0.041), Stroop interference (F (3,54) = 3.46, p = 0.023), and Chinese IADL (F (3,54) = 2.78, p = 0.050) after received the intervention. Bonferroni post-hoc comparisons on HK-MoCA showed that both scores from immediate post (Mean = 21.16, SD = 3.98) and 12-week follow-up (Mean = 20.58, SD = 4.29) were significantly higher that of 12-week TAU (Mean = 18.74, SD = 3.87) (p < 0.05). There were no serious adverse effects reported. TPS has brought significant improvement in cognition of elderly with mild NCD. It has a great potential to delay the deterioration of cognition in older adults. The effectiveness and the long-term effect of TPS in cognition still need to have further large scale randomized controlled trial to support.
Audience Takeaway:
- The first TPS study targeting older adults with mild NCD.
- TPS has brought significant improvement in cognition of elderly with mild NCD.
- TPS has significantly improved the global cognition and the effect maintained for at least 3.
