Overview
The goal of this pilot prospective study is to evaluate the effect of tDCS on psychotic-like symptoms in patients with Lewy Body Dementia (LBD). The main questions it aims to answer are:
- What is the effect of tDCS on neuropsychiatric symptoms, especially psychotic-like symptoms?
- What is the impact of tDCS on caregiver burden?
Researchers will compare active tDCS (2mA stimulation, anode on the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, cathode on the right fronto-orbital) to Sham tDCS (placebo stimulation, no intensity applied) to see if there is an effect on reducing psychotic-like symptoms and on caregiver burden.
Participants will:
- Undergo a stimulation phase consisting of 10 tDCS sessions of 20 minutes each, spread over 2 consecutive weeks (5 days with stimulation, 2 days without stimulation, 5 days with stimulation).
- perform assessments at T0 (inclusion), T1 (at the end of the stimulation phase), and T2 (follow-up at 8 weeks post stimulation).
Eligibility
Inclusion Criteria:
- Male or Female, aged over 60,
- Diagnosed with a neurodegenerative pathology of the DLB type, at a moderate stage, according to the McKeith and al. (2017) criteria
- No change in antiparkinsonian or psychotropic medications, or cholinesterase inhibitors, for a period of one month prior to inclusion,
- Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) > 15,
- Composite score called "psychotic factor" (corresponding to the sum of the psychotic-type symptoms sub-scores from the NPI [12]) greater than 0,
- Presence of a family caregiver,
- Sufficient written and oral expression in French,
- Written informed consent signed by the patient and his/her family caregiver
Exclusion Criteria:
- History of alcoholism, drug addiction or neurological diseases such as brain trauma, epilepsy, encephalitis, intracranial normal-pressure hydrocephalus, etc. which may lead to cognitive impairment,
- Concomitant major psychiatric illness,
- Significant physical illness or comorbidities
- History of moderate to severe visual impairment secondary to glaucoma, cataract or macular degeneration,
- Patient under guardianship or curators