Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive lack of strength, muscle atrophy and spasticity. The disease usually leads to death in few months since symptom onset due to aspiration pneumonia or respiratory dysfunction. Effective therapies for ALS are currently lacking and management guidelines emphasize the role of a multidisciplinary approach in order to support an adequate quality of life (QoL); emphasis is given on starting cares as soon as possible, providing them until the very end of life. Furthermore, ALS patients often report pain that might easily go underrecognized and undertreated.
Among therapies used to face the progressive lack of function in patients with ALS, kinesitherapy, is used in order to avoid excessive spasticity and deconditioning that could overlap with the effects of the disease itself. In this context, osteopathic manual treatment (OMT) might be considered as a complementary approach to ALS, aiming to ameliorate pain management and QoL.
This is the first report of OMT application to ALS patients.
The primary aim of this work consisted in assessing safety, feasibility, tolerability and satisfaction of OMT in a preliminary series of ALS outpatients. The secondary aims included the blind assessment of pain and QoL, besides the blind evaluation of the effects of the OMT by goal attainment scaling (GAS).

Open Access Link

Maggiani A, Tremolizzo L, Valentina AD, Mapelli L, Sosio S, Milano V, Bianchi M, Badi F, Lavazza C, Grandini M, Corna G, Prometti P, Lunetta C, Riva N, Ferri A, Lanfranconi F; ME&SLA Study #. Osteopathic Manual Treatment for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: A Feasibility Pilot Study. Open Neurol J. 2016 Aug 26;10:59-66. eCollection 2016.

# ME&SLA Study; besides the Authors of the byline including also: Riccardo Bonazzi (Monza), Annalisa Bosio (Monza), Dario Bovio (Milano), Carlo Ferrarese (Monza), Andrea Magnoni (Monza), Vittorio Mantero (Lecco), Samuele Marchese (Saronno), Ornella Mauri (Monza), Luca Pollastri (Monza), Andrea Rigamonti (Lecco), Caterina Salito (Milano), Vincenzo Silani (Milano), Dino Tenderini (Monza), Barbara Uva (Milano)