Treatment Trials

25,500 Clinical Trials for Various Conditions

Focus your search

ENROLLING_BY_INVITATION
A Study of Transcutaneous Electrical Stimulation As a Noxious Stimulus for the Glasgow Coma Scale
Description

The purpose of this study is to determine whether electrical stimulation can be used to replace physical stimulation to test awareness of patients with impaired consciousness. Physical stimulation can cause bruising, damaged nails and ribs, and other damage with repeated testing, and electrical stimulation may be safer and cause less distress with time. This device has not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Conditions
COMPLETED
The COMA Family Program: A Skills-Based Resiliency Program for Caregivers of Patients With Severe Acute Brain Injuries
Description

The purpose of this study is to pilot a psychosocial skills-based intervention for caregivers of patients with severe acute brain injuries. The data the investigators gather in this study will be used to further refine our COMA-F intervention.

TERMINATED
Evaluation of Mechanisms Responsible for Coma in Patients Affected by Fulminant, Acute and Chronic Hepatic Failure
Description

The purpose of this study is to understand mechanisms associated with the development of coma during hepatic failure. As of today, those mechanisms are not understood and it is difficult to intervene and prevent coma development which is often associated with mortality. Understanding the mechanism involved, may allow us to prevent coma and develop new therapies to treat this disease.

COMPLETED
The Efficacy of Familiar Voice Stimulation During Coma Recovery
Description

The purpose of the study is to determine whether familiar vocal stimulation, provided during coma recovery, improves outcomes for persons who are unconscious after severe TBI. The primary hypothesis is that unconscious persons who receive standard rehabilitation (SR) plus a high-dose of Familiar Voice stimulation (FVs) compared to unconscious persons who receive SR plus a sham stimulation (Sham Group) will demonstrate: 1. Significantly more neurobehavioral functioning post-intervention compared to pre-intervention. 2. Using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), significantly higher average measures of volumetric activity in the whole brain, middle temporal gyrus bilaterally, primary auditory area, bilateral pre-frontal cortex, hippocampus and/or the cerebellum post-intervention compared to pre-intervention.

COMPLETED
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Children With Nightmares as a Mediator of Suicide Risk (COMAA)
Description

Youth suicide risk has increased 56% in the last decade, and suicide is the leading cause of preventable death in children and adolescents. Experiencing chronic nightmares doubles the risk of suicidal ideation in children and adolescents. Decades of research support that even when controlling for depression and insomnia, nightmares predict suicidality. Contemporary theories model nightmares as the mediating link between depression and suicide. Numerous studies examine the effect of nightmare-specific therapies on reducing suicide in adults, but none have examined whether nightmare therapies can reduce youth suicidality. The proposed pilot will evaluate the feasibility of the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Nightmares in Children paradigm (CBT-NC), recruiting and retaining children ages 6-17 who experience chronic nightmares. Utilizing a waitlist control (WL) model, participants (n=30) will be randomized after baseline assessment to either immediate treatment or a WL. Feasibility will be evaluated by examining retention through treatment (or WL) to post WL and post treatment assessments. Both groups will be evaluated before and after the treatment for suicidal ideation, sleep quality, and nightmare distress and frequency, in order to document improvements due to therapy. The proposed pilot will provide preliminary data about recruitment, retention, and allow for effect size calculations between groups. These results will be used to develop a larger treatment study that would ultimately evaluate the mediating effect of treatment for chronic nightmares on suicidality in children.

Conditions
COMPLETED
Success in Comaneci-assist Coils Embolization Surveillance Study (SUCCESS)
Description

The Comaneci Embolization Assist Device is indicated for use in the neurovasculature as a temporary endovascular device used to assist in the coil embolization of wide-necked intracranial aneurysms with a neck width ≤ 10 mm. A wide-necked intracranial aneurysm (IA) defines the neck width as ≥ 4 mm or a dome-to-neck ratio \< 2. The objective of the Postmarket Surveillance Plan is to assess safety and performance as used in postmarket clinical practice in the U.S.

ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING
MPM Medical CoMatryx Surgical Bovine Collagen Study
Description

The objective of this prospective enrollment study is to collect data confirming safety, performance and clinical benefits of the CoMatryx Surgical Collagen powder at a minimum 1-year follow-up and compare it to a historical control group who did not receive the product at the time of surgery. The primary objective is to confirm safety and clinical benefits of the product. This will be assessed by recording the rate of wound healing and incidence and frequency of wound care related complications. Relationship of complications to the product should be specified.

COMPLETED
A Novel Patient Decision Aid for Surrogate Decision Makers of Comatose Survivors of Cardiac Arrest
Description

This study will test the feasibility and acceptability of deploying a decision aid for surrogate decision makers of comatose survivors of cardiac arrest early during hospitalization. This decision aid is to inform, educate and support decision makers charged with determining goals of care during post-cardiac arrest treatment.

RECRUITING
Multimodal Outcome CHAracterization in Comatose Cardiac Arrest Patients Registry and Tissue Repository
Description

Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States. Mortality rates of cardiac arrest range from 60-85%, and approximately 80% of survivors are initially comatose. Of those who survive, 50% are left with a permanent neurological disability, and only 10% are able to resume their former lifestyle. Early prognosis of comatose patients after cardiac arrest is critical for management of these patients, yet predicting outcome for these patients remains quite challenging. The primary study objective of MOCHA is to develop an accurate and reliable assessment algorithm for determining neurologic prognosis in patients initially unconscious (no eye opening, GCS-M\<6 and not following commands) post-cardiac arrest, using multiple prognostic modalities at standardized time points.

Conditions
NOT_YET_RECRUITING
Xenon for Neuroprotection During Post-Cardiac Arrest Syndrome in Comatose Survivors of an Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest
Description

XePOHCAS: Prospective, randomized, multicenter interventional trial in adult subjects with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest comparing treatment with standard-of-care post-cardiac arrest intensive care (which is targeted temperature management \[TTM\]) to xenon by inhalation plus standard-of-care post-cardiac arrest intensive care (including TTM).

COMPLETED
Critical Care Observation of Motor Activity (COMA) and SICU Outcomes
Description

In the surgical intensive care unit (SICU), goals of critical care are often discussed in long-term ventilated patients around the time of extubation. Muscle weakness predicts extubation failure but formal muscle strength assessment by the Medical Research Council scale is time-consuming and not part of the daily clinical exam. In this observational study, we hypothesize that COMA measurement, routinely used by the SICU nurses, is a reliable and valid predictor for patients' SICU outcomes. This prospective observational study is carried out within a consecutively enrolled cohort of adult patients who are extubated in two SICUs at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.

UNKNOWN
Comadres Weight Loss Pilot Program
Description

Latinas are more likely to be obese and physically inactive than white women. Therefore, a behavioral weight loss program for Latinas will be tested in this pilot study. Thirty overweight or obese Latinas will be recruited for a 12 week weight loss program at the Weight Control \& Diabetes Research Center. Participants will be provided with nutrition and physical activity education and be taught behavioral skills to help them adopt lifestyle changes that produce weight loss. Participants will be placed on a reduced calorie diet and instructed to gradually increase their level of physical activity. To encourage participants to monitor their daily eating and exercise activities, participants will be instructed to record these activities in food and exercise diaries and submit them each week. Two treatment groups will be tested. The first group will have participants attend sessions with a female friend (comadre). The second group will have participants attend sessions without a comadre. The aims of this study are to determine whether we can succeed in recruiting Latinas with their comadres and whether we can reduce participant drop-out by having Latinas participate with their comadres in a behavioral weight loss program.

Conditions
COMPLETED
Amantadine to Speed Awakening After Cardiac Arrest
Description

This study evaluates if amantadine will increase the rate of awakening in patients resuscitated from cardiac arrest but comatose (not following commands) after their resuscitation. Half of the participants will receive amantadine and the other will receive placebo.

COMPLETED
Cervical Spine Clearance in Obtunded Trauma Patients
Description

The optimal method of clearing the cervical spine in obtunded trauma patients is unclear. Computed tomography (CT) identifies most injuries but may miss ligamentous injuries. Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging has been widely used to exclude ligamentous injuries. We postulate that with the new generation of CT scanners, MR imaging is not needed to rule out significant injuries. Our protocol for clearing the cervical spine in obtunded trauma patients depends on CT alone. We are prospectively following these patients and performing a clinical examination when they are awake to show this is a safe approach.

RECRUITING
Rapid-Response EEG in Children With Suspected Status Epilepticus
Description

Seizures are common in children (\~350 per 100,000 patients per year) and require immediate medical attention. If the seizure is prolonged (\> 5 minutes) it is called status epilepticus and delayed treatment leads to higher risk in drug resistance and brain injury. The current standard of care for children admitted to the ICU with established or suspected status epilepticus is to start a conventional continuous EEG study that helps diagnosing seizures by typical electro graphic patterns. It takes on average 4 hours to start and another two hours to obtain a reading by epileptologists. This is far beyond the time window of starting an EEG study (60 minutes) as recommended by the neurocritical care society. In adult ICUs, point of care "Rapid Response EEG" are becoming a new standard of care and our ICU adopted this practice in 2020. It can be easily placed by the ICU staff rather than a specifically trained EEG technician but has a lower resolution due to fewer leads (10 vs. 20). The purpose of this study is to determine wether and by how much time RR-EEG yields faster preliminary EEG reports that the previously available conventional EEG (cEEG) and wether the detection of electro graphic seizures is comparable. This is a retrospective cohort study following patients who are admitted to the PICU and are placed on either cEEG or RR-EEG for status epilepticus.

ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING
Antiseizure Medication in Seizure Networks at Early Acute Brain Injury
Description

The goal of this clinical trial is to explore the effect of FDA-approved antiseizure drugs in the brain connectivity patterns of severe and moderate acute brain injury patients with suppression of consciousness. The main questions it aims to answer are: * Does the antiseizure medication reduce the functional connectivity of seizure networks, as identified by resting state functional MRI (rs-fMRI), within this specific target population? * What is the prevalence of seizure networks in patients from the target population, both with EEG suggestive and not suggestive of epileptogenic activity? Participants will have a rs-fMRI and those with seizure networks will receive treatment with two antiseizure medications and a post-treatment rs-fMRI. Researchers will compare the pretreatment and post-treatment rs-fMRIs to see if there are changes in the participant's functional connectivity including seizure networks and typical resting state networks.

RECRUITING
Feasibility of the Comfort Measures Only Time Out (CMOT)
Description

Nearly 25% of Americans die in intensive care units (ICUs). Most deaths in ICUs are expected and involve the removal of ventilator support, or palliative withdrawal of mechanical ventilation (WMV). Prior work by the Principal Investigator (PI) found that patient suffering can be common; with 30-59% of patients going through this process experiencing distress. Thus, experts and national organizations have called for evidence to inform guidelines for WMV. This research study will 1) develop and refine a Comfort Measures Only Time out (CMOT) intervention consisting of a structured time out with check-list protocol for the ICU team (nurse, physician, respiratory therapist) to improve the process of WMV. and 2) Pilot test the CMOT intervention in 4 ICUs (2 medical/2 surgical) among 40 WMV patients.

COMPLETED
VIGABatrin in Post-anoxic STATus Epilepticus - Phase IIa
Description

This is a pilot trial of a single loading dose of vigabatrin in post-anoxic status epilepticus.

WITHDRAWN
Tracheostomy With Bedside Simultaneous Gastrostomy Vs Usual Care Tracheostomy And Delayed Gastrostomy Placement
Description

There is currently no prospective study analyzing the effect of tracheostomy with bedside simultaneous gastrostomy versus tracheostomy with delayed gastrostomy placement (TSG versus TDG) on the outcomes of neurocritically-ill patients. The investigators will study TSG via concomitant PDT and PUG procedures, while TDG will occur per usual care. This study is a prospective randomized open-label blinded endpoint study to assess the effect of tracheostomy with bedside simultaneous gastrostomy (TSG) versus the usual care of tracheostomy with delayed gastrostomy (TDG) placement on outcomes of neurocritically-ill patients.

COMPLETED
Prognostication of Recovery in Early Disorders of Consciousness After COVID-19
Description

The primary aim of this research proposal is to use multimodal metrics (e.g., clinical data and advanced neuroimaging) in the early (i.e., acute hospitalization) phase of recovery from COVID-19-related disorders of consciousness to predict outcome at 3, 6, and 12 months post-hospitalization. We aim to construct an algorithm that synthesizes the results of these metrics to help predict recovery.

COMPLETED
Stimulant Therapy Targeted to Individualized Connectivity Maps to Promote ReACTivation of Consciousness
Description

Phase 1 of the STIMPACT trial is an open label,dose-escalation,safety study of intravenous (IV) methylphenidate (MPH) therapy in patients with disorders of consciousness (DoC) caused by severe brain injuries. To be classified as having a DoC, a patient must be in a coma, vegetative state (VS), or minimally conscious state (MCS), as determined by behavioral assessment using the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R). Patients with DoC admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) will be eligible for the study. A total of 10 patients with DoC will be enrolled in the Phase 1 study. Patients will receive escalating daily doses of IV MPH starting at 0.5 mg/kg, increasing stepwise to 1.0mg/kg and 2.0 mg/kg unless an adverse event (AE) necessitates dose de-escalation or a serious adverse event (SAE) necessitates that the patient stop participation in the study. Pharmacokinetics will be evaluated in selected patients with indwelling venous catheters or arterial catheters via serial serum measurements of MPH at each dose. The pharmacodynamic properties of IV MPH at each dose will be assessed by comparison of pre-versus post-dose EEG-based measures. The pharmacodynamic properties of the maximum tolerated dose will also be assessed by comparison of pre-versus post-dose resting state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) connectivity measures. Finally, we will test the association between structural connectivity of the ventral tegmental area (VTA), a dopaminergic brainstem nucleus that is believed to mediate MPH activation of the cerebral cortex, and EEG and rs-fMRI pharmacodynamic measures.

COMPLETED
REsting and Stimulus-based Paradigms to Detect Organized NetworkS and Predict Emergence of Consciousness
Description

The aim of this study is to assess the utility of advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and electroencephalographic (EEG) technologies for predicting functional outcomes in patients with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI).

COMPLETED
Patient Centered Cloud-based Electronic System: Ambient Warning and Response Evaluation (ProCCESs AWARE)
Description

In this multicenter project, we will introduce AWARE (electronic interface) Using a cloud-based technology . The goal of this project is to improve compliance with best practice through the use of a new acute care interface with built-in tools for error prevention, practice surveillance and reporting (ProCCESs AWARE - Patient Centered Cloud-based Electronic System: Ambient Warning and Response Evaluation).The goal of this project is to develop and test a novel acute care interface with built-in tools for error prevention, practice surveillance, decision support and reporting (ProCCESs AWARE - Patient Centered Cloud-based Electronic System: Ambient Warning and Response Evaluation). In preliminary studies, these novel informatics supports built on an advanced understanding of cognitive and organizational ergonomics, have significantly decreased the cognitive load of bedside providers and reduced medical errors. Using a cloud-based technology, AWARE will be uniformly available on either mobile or fixed computing devices and applied in a standardized manner in medical and surgical ICUs of five geographically diverse acute care hospitals predominantly serving Medicare and Medicaid patients. The impact of ProCCESs AWARE on processes of care and outcomes in study ICUs; expected to enroll more than 10,000 critically ill patients during the study period.

COMPLETED
The Use of LIFUP in Chronic Disorders of Consciousness
Description

When patients survive a severe brain injury but fail to fully recover, they often enter a Disorder of Consciousness (DoC) --that is, a set of related conditions of decreased awareness and arousal including the Vegetative State (VS) and the Minimally Conscious State (MCS). When these conditions become chronic, there are no approved treatments to help bolster any further recovery. In prior work, we have shown the clinical feasibility and potential of Low Intensity Focused Ultrasound Pulsation (LIFUP) as a remarkably safe form of non-invasive brain stimulation in these conditions.

WITHDRAWN
Decision Aid Feasibility Trial for Families of Critically Ill Stroke Patients
Description

Severe strokes, including large artery acute ischemic stroke and intracerebral hemorrhage, continue to be the leading cause of death and disability in adults in the U.S. Due to concerns for a poor long-term quality of life, withdrawal of mechanical ventilation and supportive medical care with transition to comfort care is the most common cause of death in severe strokes, but occurs at a highly variable rate. Decision aids (DAs) are shared decision-making tools which have been successfully implemented and validated for many other diseases to assist difficult decision making. The investigators have developed a pilot DA for goals-of-care decisions for surrogates of severe, critically ill stroke patients. This was developed through qualitative research using semi-structured interviews in surrogate decision makers of traumatic brain injury patients and physicians, and adapted to severe strokes. The investigators now propose to pilot-test a DA for surrogates of critically ill severe stroke patients in a feasibility trial.

COMPLETED
Single Dose Pharmacokinetics of Suboxone Study in Hepatic Impaired Subjects
Description

The objective was to determine if hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection or mild to severe hepatic impairment (Child-Pugh Classes A, B, and C) altered the PK of buprenorphine, norbuprenorphine, or naloxone.

ENROLLING_BY_INVITATION
MindBEAGLE: Unlocking Functional Communication for Patients with Disorders of Consciousness
Description

The goal of this clinical trial is to test how effective the mindBEAGLE device is in allowing people who are unconscious (due to a brain injury or other condition) to communicate using brain waves to answer Yes/No questions. Participants will wear a cap that will be connected to a computer that measures brain waves, wrist bands that vibrate at different strengths, and ear phones that create different levels of loud tones and will be asked to associate Yes/No answers with the vibrations or tones. They will also be asked to "think about" moving different parts of their body to answer Yes or No. The mindBEAGLE device has already been proven effective for this kind of communication in a previous study, and the study team would like to trial it on a population of unconscious people who enter the UPMC Rehabilitation Institute to see if patients are able to be trained to use the device as part of their everyday inpatient rehabilitation until they are discharged, or until they are able to regain consciousness.

RECRUITING
Pediatric Influence of Cooling Duration on Efficacy in Cardiac Arrest Patients (P-ICECAP)
Description

This is a multicenter trial to establish the efficacy of cooling and the optimal duration of induced hypothermia for neuroprotection in pediatric comatose survivors of cardiac arrest. The study team hypothesizes that longer durations of cooling may improve either the proportion of children that attain a good neurobehavioral recovery or may result in better recovery among the proportion already categorized as having a good outcome.

RECRUITING
The EBC Recovery Study
Description

The purpose of this research study to find out if clinically unconscious acute brain injury patients that show brain activation to music and language on electroencephalogram (EEG) (bedside test) have better outcomes and wake up in the future.

RECRUITING
Influence of Cooling Duration on Efficacy in Cardiac Arrest Patients
Description

A multicenter, randomized, adaptive allocation clinical trial to determine if increasing durations of induced hypothermia are associated with an increasing rate of good neurological outcomes and to identify the optimal duration of induced hypothermia for neuroprotection in comatose survivors of cardiac arrest.