14 Clinical Trials for Various Conditions
Rationale: Low back pain (LBP), or myofascial pain syndrome (MPS) of the low back, accounts for approximately 2.63 million visits in the United States, or 2.3 percent of annual Emergency Department (ED) visits. An estimated 100 billion dollars per year is lost from LBP. Approximately one-third of this is direct costs. Previous studies have established the safety of trigger point injections (TPI). However, the results of these studies are highly heterogeneous regarding TPI's ability to treat pain or improve functional outcomes. The two most promising TPI studies conducted in the ED have been published in the last two years. They both suffered from a small sample size. Additionally, they suffered from a combination of limitations including: lack of randomization, inconsistent medical management, lack of a follow-up assessment, and lack of patient centered functional outcomes. These studies were both two armed and either compared standard medical management to TPI with local anesthetic or TPI with local anesthetic to TPI with Normal Saline (NS). One of these studies concluded that TPI is generally beneficial. The other concluded that TPI with NS is superior. Research Hypothesis: The investigators hypothesize that standard therapy (ST) plus TPI with 8 mL of 0.5 percent Bupivacaine is superior to ST alone or ST plus TPI with 8 mL of NS for the treatment of the pain associated with MPS of the low back. Significance: This will be the first TPI study to compare ST, to TPI with local anesthetic, and TPI with NS for LBP conducted in an ED. It will also be the first TPI study to incorporate a patient centered functional outcome and patient follow-up after discharge from an ED. TPI's are a popular treatment modality for LBP among many Emergency Medicine Providers. However, to date, there is limited evidence for or against it. The investigators are hopeful that this study will answer whether or not trigger point injections are benefiting patients and, if so, which type of TPI is most beneficial.
Back pain is a huge problem for millions of Americans, including nearly 11 million Veterans. Our older Veterans suffer the most. Citizens spend billions of dollars, yet consistently get poor results. Primary Care Providers are often tasked with diagnosing and treating Chronic Low Back Pain, even though they are often undereducated in the field. These PCPs often use advanced imaging, usually MRIs to guide care. These images often show degenerative disc disease and other common pathologies in older adults, even those who are pain free, which can lead to misdiagnosis and treatment. The investigators believe that Chronic Low Back Pain is a syndrome, a final common pathway for the expression of multiple contributors that often lie outside the spine itself. For example, hip osteoarthritis, knee pain, and even anxiety could all lessen back pain if addressed and treated probably. Investigators will measure participants' low back pain-associated disability with the well-validated RMDQ. Data will be collected at baseline and monthly via telephone. The investigators hypothesize that veterans who receive PCCET will experience significantly greater reduction in low back pain-associated disability than those who receive IAUC at six months. Investigators will also measure participants' low back pain with the 0-10 Numeric Rating Scale for Pain. Data will be collected at baseline and monthly via telephone. The investigators hypothesize that veterans who receive PCCET will experience significantly greater reduction in low back pain than those who receive IAUC at six months. The goal of this study is to compare patients treated with usual care, which usually starts with imaging, versus patients who are treated by trained geriatricians who know how to recognize and address 11 key conditions that commonly drive pain and disability in older adults. The investigators believe that older patients who receive care tailored to their needs by educated PCPs will ultimately have less back pain and, more importantly, better quality of life.
This study will examine how the use of antidepressant, physical therapy, and combination of both affects pain, function, and depression outcomes in chronic low back pain patients.
The goal of this clinical trial is to pilot test a newly developed multiple component mobile-aid pain reduction intervention (MCMAPRI) and the feasibility of implementing this intervention in adult patients with myofascial pain syndrome of the low back. The main questions it aims to answer are: * What are the effects of the MCMAPRI intervention on reducing levels of myofascial pain in adult patients with myofascial pain syndrome of the low back? * What is the feasibility for implementing the MCMAPRI intervention in adult patients with myofascial pain syndrome of the low back? Participants will be randomly assigned to one of three groups: no treatment group, MCMAPRI intervention + sham osteopathic manipulation treatment, or MCMAPRI intervention +osteopathic manipulation treatment. * Participants assigned to the no treatment group will only receive educational materials through email and a weekly phone call from the coordinator to reduce dropouts. * Participants assigned to the multiple component mobile-aid pain reduction intervention+sham osteopathic manipulation treatment group will be asked to engage in posture training through a wearable device (i.e., UPRIGHT GO), a core muscle training and stretching exercise program, stress reduction through breath focus, and in strategies to improve their level of daily activity (i.e., wearing a Garmin device). This group will receive a sham osteopathic manipulation treatment by placing hands on the patient as if osteopathic manipulation treatment is being performed. * Participants assigned to the MCMAPRI intervention+sham osteopathic manipulation treatment group will be asked to engage in posture training through a wearable device (i.e., UPRIGHT GO), a core muscle training and stretching exercise program, stress reduction through breath focus, and in strategies to improve their level of daily activity (i.e., wearing a Garmin device). This group will receive actual osteopathic manipulation treatment by putting pressure on certain muscles in the back and performing osteopathic manipulation treatment exercises on the patient. Researchers will compare the no treatment group, multiple component mobile-aid pain reduction intervention+sham osteopathic manipulation treatment group, and multiple component mobile-aid pain reduction intervention+osteopathic manipulation treatment group to see if there are decreased levels of pain, increased physical activity, better posture, and reduced levels of stress.
Participants with chronic pain conditions including chronic low back pain and fibromyalgia may benefit from light stimuli presented to the retina to reduce chronic pain severity and pain sensitivity. Participants will be recruited into this study and will be presented with one of three uniform light stimuli via a wide-field ganzfeld in three conditions to determine the retinal mechanisms that reduce pain. This work will lead to a greater understanding of retinal mechanisms that contribute to pain and will assist the design of future studies to harness the potential of light based pain therapies.
One way to better understand how various treatments for pain differ is to determine the effects of these treatments on different pain qualities or characteristics. For example, pain can be described as "hot", "electrical", "cold", "achy", and "piercing." In order to determine which pain quality/qualities that a pain treatment affects, researchers must develop measures of these pain qualities or characteristics. The purpose of this study is to learn more about the different pain qualities individuals who have low back pain, headaches and fibromyalgia experience. Identifying the common qualities of pain experienced by these groups will help researchers evaluate and develop more comprehensive pain quality measures, which will ultimately help them to be able to test the effectiveness of treatments for these different pain qualities.
This study relies on the use of a smartphone application (SOMA) that the investigators developed for tracking daily mood, pain, and activity status in acute pain, chronic pain, and healthy controls over four months.The primary goal of the study is to use fluctuations in daily self-reported symptoms to identify computational predictors of acute-chronic pain transition, pain recovery, and/or chronic pain maintenance or flareups. The general study will include anyone with current acute or chronic pain, while a smaller sub-study will use a subset of patients from the chronic pain group who have been diagnosed with chronic low back pain, failed back surgery syndrome, or fibromyalgia. These sub-study participants will first take part in one in-person EEG testing session while completing simple interoception and reinforcement learning tasks and then begin daily use of the SOMA app. Electrophysiologic and behavioral data from the EEG testing session will be used to determine predictors of treatment response in the sub-study.
Veterans who have responded well to Battlefield Acupuncture (BFA), a form of auricular acupuncture, in routine clinical practice will be invited to receive education to insert the needles themselves at home. A 3D-printed wearable prosthetic will also be explored as a means to facilitate needle placement. Primary end-points will include whether adverse events occur over a six-month period and whether the aforementioned prosthesis significantly facilitates needle placement in terms of subjective ease of administration.
The purpose of this study is to investigate, in two phases: (1) the feasibility and safety of Virtual Embodiment Therapy in treating chronic pain of lower back and upper limbs and (2) the efficacy of Virtual Embodiment Therapy on chronic pain disorders of the lower back and upper limbs. In phase 1, we will investigate the feasibility, safety, and side effects related to this treatment by assessing simulator sickness. In phase 2, which in contingent on successful completion of phase 1, we will assess symptoms of pain specific to the region treated, fear and avoidance behavior, and depression symptoms before and after 8 sessions of treatment with Virtual Embodiment Therapy in order to assess efficacy. This study will be single-blinded, because the participation of the clinician is necessary to ensure proper administration of the therapy, as well as to monitor in the event of adverse reactions.
SPECIFIC AIMS Pain in both youth and adults is a complex, subjective and personal experience, and remains poorly understood. One particularly perplexing dimension of some forms of pain is the tendency of pain to spread outside of an affected body site to adjacent location, and then to unaffected body sites. Such widespread pain may reflect an altered spatial tuning of somatosensory processing, such that lateral inhibition is diminished, thereby allowing pain to spread. To date, no therapies exist which are designed specifically to diminish or even reverse the spatial spread of pain. However, training in two-point discrimination holds the potential to retune spatial aspects of somatosensory processing and may represent a novel therapy for widespread pain. Thus, the present investigation will test the following aims: Aim 1. Do youth with chronic pain have disrupted spatial tuning of somatosensory processing? Deficits in two point tactile discrimination have long been noted in adults with chronic pain, but such deficits remain poorly documented in pediatric chronic pain patients. In order to determine if such deficits exist, youth with both chronic pain and healthy youth will undergo assessment of two point discrimination thresholds. Aim 2. Does two-point discrimination training result in diminished pain and disability in youth with somatic pain? After initial characterization of tactile discrimination thresholds, youth with chronic pain will participate in multiple sessions of either two-point discrimination training or a single-point spatially-directed attentional control condition. Training will involve up to 9 additional sessions. Efficacy of training will be assessed by 1) reductions in the spatial extent of pain, 2) reductions in pain intensity and unpleasantness, and 3) reductions in pain-related disability.
Chronic pain affects more than 50 million adults in the United States and is estimated to cost the nation more than $560 billion dollars each year. Regular physical activity is widely recognized as essential for maintaining health for all individuals, but is particularly important for individuals with chronic pain (ICPs) as physical activity can prevent further deconditioning and may even improve pain outcomes. Previous literature has shown that certain categories of partner behaviors (e.g., solicitous, punishing, distracting) are associated with different health outcomes for ICPs, and recently researchers have begun examining partner behaviors through the lens of Self-Determination Theory, specifically looking at the effects of autonomy support from a spouse on physical activity among ICPs. Partner autonomy support has been positively associated with physical activity levels and better health outcomes, but no studies to date have explored what factors predict whether or not a partner will use an autonomy supportive interpersonal style (as opposed to a controlling interpersonal style) with the ICP. Similarly, more research is needed on the mechanisms by which autonomy support promotes positive outcomes for ICPs. Though receiving autonomy support has been linked to increased physical activity and improved mental health, no studies have yet tested the full Self-Determination Theory model as one possible explanation of the link between this form of partner support and desirable health outcomes. In particular, it is important to understand the ICP's perspective on how partner autonomy support influences need satisfaction and autonomous motivation as possible mediators between autonomy support and ICP physical activity. Furthermore, little research has explored other need supportive behaviors or their need frustrating counterparts. The current study will not only provide greater understanding of autonomy support, but will also expand the literature regarding these other need supportive and need thwarting behaviors. Lastly, given the value of need supportive behaviors from one's partner, it is essential to evaluate how partner perceptions of those need supportive behaviors align with ICP's perceptions of those behaviors. Any need support a partner provides is likely moderated by the ICP's perception of that support.
To investigate the use of balance as a screening tool for Central Sensitization, a condition of the nervous system that is associated with the development and maintenance of chronic pain. This is done by comparing the scores of a gold standard screening tool (the Central Sensitization Inventory) with balance data.
The purpose of this study is to see if changing from one pain medication like morphine or oxycodone to another pain medication, oxymorphone (OPANA®), will be helpful to patients. This study will examine if the switching from one pain medication to another can be done over a 24 hour period. Oxymorphone, the drug being studied, is an FDA approved drug for treatment of severe pain.
Observational study of axial spine pain and hyperflexibility. Patients will receive physical exam maneuvers (traditional straight leg raise, FABER, facet loading as well as Beighton's hypermobility score) and blood / urine / saliva collection. They will also be separated into pain groups based on their response to injections. A correlation between exam findings and procedure group will be measured.