Study to Evaluate Music Therapy on Irritability and Impulsivity in Patients With Huntington's Disease (MUSIC-HD)

Not Applicable

Recruiting

• Conditions: Huntington Disease
• Interventions: Other: Music Intervention

• Registration Number: NCT06414967
• Lead Sponsor: Poitiers University Hospital

Brief Summary

The study is an open-label clinical trial evaluating whether music therapy combined with conventional management reduces irritability and impulsivity in 15 patients with early-stage Huntington's disease. This pilot study aims to show the interest of alternative non-pharmacological measures such as a digital music therapy tool, adapted to an audience of Huntington's patients, to help manage the psychobehavioral symptoms frequently observed in this affection, and to avoid breakdowns due to caregiver exhaustion.

Detailed Description

The participants will be recruited at the Clinical Investigation Center (CIC) of the University Hospital of Poitiers and will receive music therapy for 3 months.

After the start of the musical intervention, 3 visits (at 1 month, 3 months and 6 months) will be performed by practitioners, nurses and neuropsychologist at the CIC. Participants will answer questionnaires : irritability (BITe and PBA-s sub-score), impulsivity (UPPS-P and Delay discounting task), anxiety (STAI-Y and HAM-A), and quality of life: H-QoL-I. Caregivers will be asked to rate the patient's irritability and anxiety using a Lickert scale from 0 to 10, and the patient's impulsivity with the ISDC.

Study Timeline

• Status Verified: 2024-05
• Study First Submitted: 2024-05-10
• Study First Submitted QC: 2024-05-10
• Study Start: 2024-05-15
• Study First Posted: 2024-05-16
• Last Update Submitted: 2024-05-16
• Last Update Posted: 2024-05-17
• Primary Completion: 2025-11-20
• Study Completion: 2026-05-20

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: RECRUITING
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 15

Inclusion Criteria

• Age >= 18 years
• Huntington disease genetically confirmed by the presence of at least 35 repeats of the CAG triplet in exon 1 of the HTT gene
• UHDRS (Unified Huntington's disease Rating Scale) score <= 5 with a diagnostic confidence score =4
• Absence of significant cognitive impairment MoCA >=24
• Stable drug therapy in the 28 days prior inclusion and during the study
• Without legal tutors or subordination
• Affiliated to a health insurance system as required by the French law on biomedical research
• Written informed consent for participation in the study

Exclusion Criteria

• Inability to give free and informed consent for study participation
• Significant hearing impairment
• Participating to another study the day of enrollement
• Persons benefiting from enhanced protection, i.e.persons deprived of their liberty by a judicial or administrative decision, adults under legal and finally patients in a vital emergency situation.

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: SINGLE_GROUP

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Music Intervention	Music Intervention	The rythm of the music sessions will be 1 per week in the first month and every 15 days in the second and third month.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Describe evolution of irritability in patients with Huntington's disease after 3 months of music therapy combined with conventional management	Month 3	Score of The brief Irritability Test (BITe). It consists of 5 questions, each rated on likert-type scale with 6 responses options, each question scores to 1 to 6. Lower score means a better outcome.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Describe evolution of irritability in patients with Huntington's disease with music therapy combined with conventional management	Month [1;3;6]	Score of The brief Irritability Test (BITe). It consists of 5 questions, each rated on likert-type scale with 1-6 responses options. Lower score means a better outcome.; Score of Problem Behavior Assessment-short version (PBA-s). It consist of 4 questions, each rated on likert-type scale with 5 responses options, each question scores to 0 to 4. Lower score means a better outcome.
Describe evolution of the quality of life	Month [3;6]	H-QoL-I (Huntington Qualty of Life Instrument), It consist of 11 items scale, each rated on likert-type scale with 5 response options.Lower scores mean a better outcome.
Describe evolution of impulsivity	Month [1;3;6]	UPPS (Impulsive Behavior Scale). It consists of 20 questions, each rated on likert-type scale with 4 response options. Lower scores mean a better outcome.; Delay discounting task. ISDC (Inventary of Comportement Dyexecutif Syndrom). It consists of 8 questions, each rated on likert-type scale with 3-5 response options. Lower scores means a better outcome.
Describe evolution of Anxiety.	Month [1;3;6]	STAI-Y (Form-Y of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) score. It consist of 20-item scales providing separate measures of state and trait anxiety (S-Anxiety and T-Anxiety, respectively). On a 4-point Likert scale (1-4), a score equal to 4 indicates the presence of a higher level of anxiety.; HAM-A (Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale) score. It consist of 14 item-scale, each rated on likert-type scale with 4 response options. Lower scores mean a better outcome
Compliance with musical sessions	Month [1;3]	Number of music therapy sessions performed.
Describe caregivers feeling about the effect of music intervention on patient's irritability and anxiety	Month [3;6]	A lickert scale from 0 to 10. Lower scores mean a better outcome.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

CHU Poitiers / CIC; 🇫🇷 Poitiers, France