15 Clinical Trials for Various Conditions
The purpose of this study is: 1) To assess the feasibility of implementing a clinical trial comparing two potentially analgesic dietary interventions in patients with chronic daily headache (CDH) and 2)To assess the preliminary efficacy of the dietary interventions on headache frequency and severity and 3) to assess the impact of the diet on the percentage of omega-6 highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFA) in total HUFA in whole blood. During a 6-week baseline phase, eligible individuals with CDH will complete web-based daily diaries, self-report questionnaires, and nutrient intake assessments. Before randomization to one of the two intervention groups, blood will be collected to measure baseline nutritional biomarkers. Targeted dietary advice will be administered and foods will be provided throughout the 12-week intervention phase. Samples for biomarkers will be collected every 4 weeks during the intervention. Participants will continue recording headache characteristics with a daily headache diary. At the conclusion of the intervention, participants will provide complete follow-up assessments and blood for nutritional biomarker measurement.
The objective of this prospective, randomized, double-blind, parallel-group, placebo-controlled study is to determine the effectiveness of intranasal oxytocin in subjects suffering from chronic daily headache.
The objective of this study is to determine if patients with chronic daily headache have continuous headache or moments of headache relief. The secondary objective of this study is to determine the period of time patients who have chronic daily headache that is not continuous are headache free.
The purpose of this study is to determine whether acupuncture can reduce pain in long-term headache sufferers.
Study is aimed at determining why some patients with episodic headache proceed to chronic daily or near daily headaches. The Investigators seek to discover differences in brain anatomy and function, composition of cerebrospinal fluid, blood products, genetics, and patient phenotypes that might help explain this process.
Participants completing training in intensive meditation and continuing frequent practice for one year would experience reduced frequency, duration and severity of headaches along with improved awareness of the triggers of their symptoms, improved quality of life and mental health, improved heart rate variability, and reduced inflammation.
This is a 3-month pilot study of 10 adolescents with chronic daily headache. Teens will be placed on a modified Atkins diet and followed with 2 subsequent visits to assess for headache improvement.
Pediatric chronic pain disorders are common and consequential in Western societies, occurring in 25-80% of population-based samples with a median prevalence of 11-38% and significant pain-related disability in 3-5% of these children. Pediatric chronic pain disorders have a negative impact on many aspects children's lives including mobility, night sleep, school attendance, peer relationships, family functioning, and overall quality of life. Parents caring for these children risk loss of parental earnings, and these disorders place a high financial burden on healthcare. In a nationally representative sample in the United States, costs related to health care were significantly higher ($1,339 per capita) for children with chronic pain disorders compared to children with common pediatric health conditions of ADHD, asthma and obesity. In children with clinical chronic pain conditions, such as daily headaches or fibromyalgia, chronic pain is presumably a persistent state of an overly excitable nervous system. This phenomenon known as central sensitization is characterized by excessive pain sensitivity that occurs in response to non-painful stimuli, such as light touch or contact with clothing, and slightly painful stimuli, such as a light pinprick. This hypersensitivity results from peculiar changes in the working of the central nervous system, including the spinal cord and brain, and leads to unusual intensification of pain that is out of proportion to the inciting stimulus. For example, light touch from clothing on the skin is perceived as intensely painful. Central sensitization is also thought to contribute to the spreading of pain to other body sites in several chronic pain disorders. In chronic pain disorders, the function of the central descending inhibitory modulating system is likely impaired and is traditionally measured by a phenomenon identified as "conditioned pain modulation (CPM)" and more recently measured by a phenomenon of "offset analgesia" (OA). The OA test is more robust than the CPM test and likely more acceptable to most patients, especially children, because it is shorter in duration and uses a more tolerable painful stimulus. Compared to CPM, the OA test is more tolerable because it is conducted using a painful test stimulus that is less than the maximal (suprathreshold). Additionally, the time of exposure to the painful stimulus is significantly shorter, a few seconds, in the OA test compared to CPM. The central descending inhibitory pathway that modulates pain as tested by OA is functional and mature in healthy children as young as 6 year of age, but it has yet to be investigated in children with chronic pain disorders. The investigators plan to test OA responses in a population of common pediatric pain disorders with overlapping symptomology attributed to central sensitization (such as chronic musculoskeletal pain, chronic abdominal pain and chronic headaches and chronic regional pain syndromes) and compare their responses with an age- and sex-matched control group. The characteristics of OA responses in each group will allow for assessment of the presence or absence of central sensitization as a mechanism driving the persistent, abnormal pain in a subgroup of these chronic pain disorders. The investigators hypothesize that central sensitization is the potential contributory mechanism of the central nervous system heightened sensitivity to two testing stimuli of painful (moderate heat discomfort sensation) and non-painful (warmth sensation) in children with chronic pain disorders. These types of sensations mimic those that children would be expected to experience their natural environment during typical activities of daily living such as showering/bathing in warm water or hand washing. Additionally, the Pain Sensitivity Questionnaire (PSQ) and Central Sensitization Inventory (CSI) will be used as clinical screening tools for subjective report of sensitization symptoms, and are simple and easy to administer in a clinical setting. The investigators hypothesize that these measures will correlate with the objective offset analgesia responses thus allowing for assessment of central sensitization in children with chronic pain disorders. These tests are advantageous because they are feasible to perform rapidly in a clinic setting and have utility for measurement of patient responses to therapeutic interventions. If this concept is supported by this study, future studies could utilize OA to examine the effects of various pharmacological and physical interventions used to manage children with chronic pain disorders including intensive interdisciplinary rehabilitation or specific interventions such as aerobic exercise, which likely modulates pain via similar mechanisms.
This study will compare a local anesthetic technique that has been used to treat subjects suffering from transformed migraines (chronic migraines) versus medical management with traditional antidepressant Amitriptyline / Elavil. Subjects will be randomized into one of two treatment groups to compare the safety and efficacy of the therapies. Subjects will recieve either sphenopalatine ganglion nerve block with 5% lidocaine gel into the nasopharynx or medical management with traditional antidepressants, Elavil, to produce a reduction in the frequency and severity of the headache. We propose that there will be a difference in the outcomes when comparing the two methods of treating transformed migraines and that one research arm will result in more patient satisfaction and greater efficacy in the treatment of subjects
The objective of the study is to evaluate the efficacy of a yoga treatment for veterans with mild post-traumatic and chronic tension-type headaches. Study Aims: * Does this yoga treatment, targeted toward specific symptoms veterans with mild post-traumatic and chronic tension-type headaches experience, assist in decreasing headaches and associated symptoms? * Does this yoga treatment, targeted toward specific symptoms veterans with mild post-traumatic and chronic tensions-type headaches experience, assist in improving quality of life? * Does this yoga treatment, targeted toward specific symptoms veterans with mild post-traumatic and chronic tension-type headaches experience, improve mood? * Do the effects of yoga on symptoms, mood, and quality of life maintain 2 months post completion of treatment?
This protocol matches child subjects with peer mentors of similar age who have learned to function successfully with a chronic pain disorder. The trained mentors will present information to the subjects in a supervised and monitored interaction via telephone and computer for 2 months and encourage participation in skill-building programs. Children will be tested for improvement in pain and functioning at 2 months and again at 4 months to see if improvements persist. The investigators hypothesize that children who received peer mentor support will show more improvement in pain and functioning at 2 and 4 months into treatment than those in a control group who do not receive mentor support.
Approximately 9% of men and 18% of women suffer from migraine headaches. Almost all migraine sufferers report light sensitivity during a headache. Some people with migraine report that light can trigger their migraines and some people with migraine are light sensitive all of the time. The investigators have recently determined that certain colors of light are more likely to trigger migraines than other colors. In this study the investigators want to know if people who wear glasses that block these colors of light will have fewer migraine headaches.
Purpose of this study is to determine if a CD-ROM computer program (called "Headstrong") is effective in helping children cope with chronic headaches.
This research aims to look at the effect of low-dose naltrexone on the severity and frequency of attacks in people with chronic migraine with or without new daily persistent headache and fibromyalgia. A few studies suggest low-dose naltrexone is effective for fibromyalgia, but it has not been studied in patients with migraine and headaches. Our goal is to see if there is an improvement in either severity and frequency of attacks and overall impact on quality of life over a three-month period.
New daily persistent headache (NDPH) is a primary headache disorder characterized by the daily and unremitting headache pain patients experience with a distinct onset. Despite the known significant impairment associated with NDPH, the process by which some patients with NDPH recover within months while others do not is unknown. The investigators propose to refine the clinical definition and suggest a novel mechanism underlying new daily persistent headache (NDPH) in adolescents. They further aim to investigate low-dose naltrexone for the treatment of new daily persistent headache. Healthy controls will also be enrolled in order to investigate the existence of a biomarker for NDPH. Adolescents ages 10-17 will be recruited from Boston Children's Hospital Pediatric Headache Program.