Paediatric and adult movement disorders

Movement Disorder-Childhood Rating Scale: A Sensitive Tool to Evaluate Movement Disorders

BACKGROUND

The Movement Disorder-Childhood Rating Scale represents a new tool for assessment of movement disorders during developmental age. In this study, we evaluated a cohort of 68 patients affected by various types of movement disorders and treated with specific drugs over one year to verify the usefulness of the Movement Disorder-Childhood Rating Scale.

METHOD

The participants were divided into two groups according to their ages (0-3 years; 4-18 years) and were evaluated using Movement Disorder-Childhood Rating Scale 0-3 or 4-18 at baseline (i.e., before starting pharmacological treatment [T0], after 6 months [T1], and after 12 months [T2] of treatment. Univariate repeated measures analysis of variance with a Greenhouse-Geisser correction by SPSS 20 was performed to analyze the scale responsiveness for the three indices (e.g., Index I, Index II, Global Index) in each group with time (T0, T1, and T2). In addition, the Bonferroni test was performed to identify the source of significant differences among means.

RESULTS

Significant differences were found between time points (T1 versus T0, T2 versus T0, and T2 versus T1) in both scales for all indexes with the exception for T2 versus T1 for Index II in both scales and for T2 versus T1 for the Global Index in the older age group. There was no significant correlation between observed changes in the scores and the age of the children, either for Movement Disorder-Childhood Rating Scale 0-3 or 4-18.

CONCLUSION

Our results suggest that Movement Disorder-Childhood Rating Scale is a suitable tool to detect changes independently from age and could be used as outcome measure for clinical trials.

Movement disorder-childhood rating scale: reliability and validity

A new scale for children and adolescents aged 4-18 years, called the Movement Disorder Childhood Rating Scale, was designed to: (1) describe clinical features of different types of movement disorders; (2) evaluate the intensity of movement disorders in different body regions at rest and during specific tasks; and (3) assess the influence of movement disorders on motor function and daily living activities. The scale is divided into 2 parts: Part I for general assessment, and Part II for movement-disorder severity. It includes a 20-minute standardized video protocol of all items. The scale was applied to 61 patients with different types of movement disorder, and was independently scored by 3 observers. Reliability, construct validity, and consistency indexes are reported. High interrater agreement on each item, and a high degree of internal consistency on several proposed items, were evident.