Multisensory Stimulation in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Disease: Case Report of an Innovative Proposal through Immersive Virtual Reality

Abstract

Physical–cognitive stimulation has emerged as a promising strategy for improving the quality of life of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This case study reports on the use of immersive virtual reality (IVR) as a tool for multisensory stimulation in a woman with ALS (76 years old; 11 years since diagnosis; stage 2). The program consisted of IVR stimulation sessions (three sessions per week for 12 weeks). The results showed that the implementation of the program was feasible and safe (no adverse symptoms on the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire), as well as easy to execute (>80% on the System Usability Scale). Additionally, the participant reported improvements in aspects related to her mental health (44% depression and 20% anxiety) and improvements in her quality of life, and she also maintained her values in her functional capacity. This study presents novel and important findings by demonstrating the feasibility of implementing physical–cognitive stimulation programs with IVR in a person with ALS, allowing for multisensory stimulation with commercially available hardware and software and the generation of benefits in their health-related quality of life and mental health.