Results
SCA3, ataxia, ataxic symptoms
SPINOCEREBELLAR ATAXIA TYPE 1, DISEASE
All 20 trial participants (12 men; age at baseline, 51.9 ± 10.0 years) completed the questionnaire. SARA score and disease duration at baseline were 11.9 ± 3.9 points and 8.0 ± 5.4 years, respectively.Prior to participation, 75% of patients expected to have either somewhat less severe or much less severe ataxic symptoms if they were to receive real tDCS daily for 2 consecutive weeks (Fig. Short‐term and long‐term expectations of benefit of patients with spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 after 10 sessions of real cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) administered during 2 consecutive weeks (Short‐term expectations of benefit of individual patients with spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 and their interpretation of treatment assignment based on the presence or absence of clinical improvement. The anticipated decrease in ataxia severity is shown after (In the following questions, patients were asked how they would interpret self‐perceived improvement or the lack thereof after 2 weeks of tDCS in terms of confidence of treatment assignment. A quarter of individuals equated a decrease in ataxia severity with definite allocation to real tDCS, while another 60% thought that this would make randomization to real tDCS more likely than sham tDCS (Fig. Beforehand, only 4 out of 20 patients with SCA3 did not have a preference to which group they would be randomized. However, regardless of treatment allocation, 60% of respondents indicated that they were willing to participate again if we would redo the study. The most commonly reported reasons to participate were an opportunity to help other people with SCA3 (especially the next generation, 30%), only help themselves (20%), help other patients and themselves (30%), advance science (15%), or question left unanswered (5%).To ascertain whether the aforementioned findings are treatment specific, the final questions contained a hypothetical scenario with an oral drug and an identical study aim. After 3 months of daily intake, 80% of individuals thought that they would have reduced ataxia severity if randomized to the real drug (Fig. There were no correlations between the expected degree of improvement after 2 weeks of tDCS and age, SARA score, disease duration, CCAS‐S score, educational level, and percent change in SARA score (Pearson's 