Grau-Sánchez, JenniferSegura, EmmaSanchez-Pinsach, DavidRaghavan, PreetiMünte, Thomas F.Palumbo, Anna MarieTurry, AlanDuarte Oller, EstherSärkämö, TeppoCerquides, JesusArcos, Josep LluísRodríguez-Fornells, Antoni2021-05-282021-05-282021Grau-Sánchez J, Segura E, Sanchez-Pinsach D, Raghavan P, Münte TF, Palumbo AM, et al. Enriched music-supported therapy for chronic stroke patients: a study protocol of a randomised controlled trial. BMC Neurol. 2021 Jan 12; 21(1): 19. DOI: 10.1186/s12883-020-02019-11471-2377http://hdl.handle.net/10230/47680Background: Residual motor deficits of the upper limb in patients with chronic stroke are common and have a negative impact on autonomy, participation and quality of life. Music-Supported Therapy (MST) is an effective intervention to enhance motor and cognitive function, emotional well-being and quality of life in chronic stroke patients. We have adapted the original MST training protocol to a home-based intervention, which incorporates increased training intensity and variability, group sessions, and optimisation of learning to promote autonomy and motivation. Methods: A randomised controlled trial will be conducted to test the effectiveness of this enriched MST (eMST) protocol in improving motor functions, cognition, emotional well-being and quality of life of chronic stroke patients when compared to a program of home-based exercises utilizing the Graded Repetitive Arm Supplementary Program (GRASP). Sixty stroke patients will be recruited and randomly allocated to an eMST group (n = 30) or a control GRASP intervention group (n = 30). Patients will be evaluated before and after a 10-week intervention, as well as at 3-month follow-up. The primary outcome of the study is the functionality of the paretic upper limb measured with the Action Research Arm Test. Secondary outcomes include other motor and cognitive functions, emotional well-being and quality of life measures as well as self-regulation and self-efficacy outcomes. Discussion: We hypothesize that patients treated with eMST will show larger improvements in their motor and cognitive functions, emotional well-being and quality of life than patients treated with a home-based GRASP intervention. Trial registration: The trial has been registered at ClinicalTrials.gov and identified as NCT04507542 on 8 August 2020.application/pdfengCopyright © The Author(s) 2021. Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies tinfo:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12883-020-02019-1Music therapyMusic-supported therapyRehabilitationStrokeinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess