This is a pilot RCT with equal arms: experimental arm and (wait list) control arm.
All participants will be in the early stage of Alzheimer's disease and on stable medication.
They will all continue with this medication for their 6 months participation.
Experimental group will add weekly training on the experimental device, 5 days a week for 12
weeks. Training will involve therapeutic games aimed primarily at the memory cognitive
domain. All participants will receive weekly calls from clinical coordinator and report on
medication and overall health. Caregivers will also be enrolled so they support the trials.
Description
Participants will be randomized equally into an experimental group and a wait list control
group.
Experimental training will occur in the home, and will last 12 weeks, each week having 5
sessions of therapeutic game play. Each session will start with vitals being measured and
logged followed by motor and biosensor baselines. Subsequently, participants will play an
increasing number of games, targeted at the major cognitive domains of memory (primarily),
attention and executive functions. Since sessions will increase in length, researchers expect
that more than 10 short games may eventually be played in each session.
This will be an ABAA protocol for the experimental group, and a AABA protocol for the
wait-list control group. Data will be sampled at baseline (A), during each rehabilitation
session (B), mid-way through the study (at 3 months from baseline) and at the end of the
study, at 6 months from baseline (A).
At the end of every 4 weeks of BrightGo training, the participant and caregiver will each
fill a custom subjective evaluation questionnaire.
Before crossover to the experimental protocol, participants in the wait-list group will
continue with their daily routine and prescribed medication (which will be logged). After
crossing over, they will add the BrightGo intervention to their daily routine.
Participants initially randomized to the experimental group will continue with daily routine
and medication, and add the 5 sessions per week of experimental therapy. Once they cross over
to the control arm after 12 weeks from start, they will continue with their daily routine and
prescribed medication (which will again be logged) for another 12 weeks.
All participants will receive a weekly call from the Clinical Coordinator so to report on any
health concerns and system issues, as well as medication use. Caregivers will also be
enrolled so they support the trials.