SMART MS

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Strengthening Mental Abilities with Relational Training (SMART) in Multiple Sclerosis (MS): A feasibility trial

• IRAS ID

  299860

• Contact name

  Nima Moghaddam

• Contact email

  nmoghaddam@lincoln.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University of Lincoln

• Duration of Study in the UK

  1 years, 11 months, 30 days

• Research summary

  Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a lifelong illness that affects the brain and spinal cord. Around 1 in 600 people in the UK have MS. Many people with MS (70%) have problems with thinking skills. These problems cause them distress and disability. There is a need for treatments to improve these problems. SMART – an online ‘brain training’ treatment – can boost thinking skills, but has not been tested with people with MS.

  Aims
  1. Adapt the SMART treatment to make it fit for people with MS.
  2. Assess whether we can do a large study to test whether SMART treatment improves thinking skills in people with MS

  Methods
  Patients aged 18-69, seen in MS clinics, will be invited to take part and sent study details. Those who fit the study will be asked to do some tests of thinking skills and fill in some forms about their problems with thinking, mood, and health. Patients will then be put into three groups by chance (20 in each group):
  Group 1: Receives online SMART treatment in addition to their usual care (MS Nurse support). SMART treatment involves doing a series of puzzles. These puzzles are designed to train key skills that support thinking and new learning.
  Group 2: Receives usual care alone.
  Group 3: Receives a ‘control’ online treatment plus usual care. The control treatment is a puzzle activity (Sudoku).
  This allows us to compare SMART training to an activity that looks similar but is not designed to have the same benefits.

  Three and six months later, patients again complete the tests and forms that they did before treatment. Researchers and patient-partners (researchers who live with MS) will also interview 30 patients about how they found the study and treatment received.

• REC name

  London - Bloomsbury Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  21/LO/0600

• Date of REC Opinion

  18 Oct 2021

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion