LEXINGTON, MA — Constant Therapy Health, a brain health digital therapeutics company, announced the publication of a feasibility study of its Constant Therapy digital cognitive therapy platform in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) titled, “Home-based electronic cognitive therapy in patients with Alzheimer Disease: Feasibility Randomized Controlled Trial.”
The study, conducted by the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and Department of Behavioral Neuroscience at Boston University School of Medicine in collaboration with the Center for Translational Cognitive Neuroscience at the Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System, concluded that long-term computerized cognitive training using Constant Therapy is feasible for patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in the mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and mild dementia stages. Patients engaged more with Constant Therapy compared to paper and pencil training over the 24-week study period and improved their performance over time.
“The goal of the study was to determine the feasibility of a long-term home-based cognitive training intervention for patients with mild dementia from Alzheimer’s disease. While medications available have been shown to help slow disease progression in AD, supplementing pharmacological interventions with non-pharmacological interventions has been shown to sustain cognition and quality of life more than medications alone,” said Dr. Andrew Budson, senior author on the study and Associate Director at the Boston University Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, Professor of Neurology at Boston University School of Medicine, and Chief of Cognitive Behavioral Neurology at the Veterans Affairs (VA) Boston Healthcare System. “We found that patients in the treatment cohort were able to use Constant Therapy daily and consistently for the entire study period of 24 weeks. We are encouraged by the results and believe that these findings support the development of future randomized, controlled trials to further investigate the efficacy of digital therapeutics like Constant Therapy to sustain cognitive function in patients with AD.”
The study included a total of 19 patients all between the ages of 50 and 90 years of age with a diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) secondary to Alzheimer’s disease or mild Alzheimer’s dementia and were randomized into the experimental group which used Constant Therapy, or the active control group, which did paper and pencil games. Patients were assessed using the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) every 6 weeks. Feasibility analyses were computed for participants who completed 24 weeks of Constant Therapy and found that long-term use of the Constant Therapy program was feasible using it for about 32 minutes daily with an adherence rate of 80 percent (121 out of 168 days). These participants showed an overall improvement in accuracy and latency (P=.005) in the Constant Therapy scores, as well as specific improvements in tasks of visual and auditory memory, attention, and arithmetic. The Constant Therapy group improved in the RBANS coding subtest. No unexpected problems or adverse events were observed.
“With tens of thousands of users and over 200 million exercises completed with Constant Therapy, we have shown that home-based cognitive therapy is a viable and effective rehabilitation tool for those with speech, language and cognitive disorders. In Alzheimer’s disease, where the patient population may go months between clinician visits and assessments, having an option that is accessible and easy to use is critical,” said Veera Anantha, Ph.D., CEO and Founder, Constant Therapy. “This latest study shows that Constant Therapy is a promising digital home-based option for people with Alzheimer’s disease with mild dementia or MCI, to help patients maintain cognitive and communication skills longer.“
