Active clinical trials for "Chronic Pain"

The purpose of this research study is to determine if Marinol alleviates pain in patients with chronic pain who are currently taking opioids. The study begins with a 2-hour initial visit followed by three 8-hour appointments at Brigham and Women's Hospital. At each 8-hour visit, patients receive a dose of medication and complete surveys relating to pain. During the first visit a brief examination and a few surveys about pain, quality of life, and medical history are given. The study doctor then determines if the participant continues to qualify for the study. If qualified for the study, patients receive a daily diary to record pain levels and pain medications; this will take about 5 minutes each day. After completion of the diary, patients begin the 8-hour visits. Patients visit the Pain Trials Center three times to receive study medication. After taking the study medication, participants remain in the clinic for 8 hours to complete hourly surveys about pain and pain relief. Subsequent to these visits, patients may enter a 1-month extension where Marinol is taken at home, and pain levels are recorded in a diary. Participants can change the dose of study drug to better control pain and side effects, after speaking with study staff. The study then concludes with a final 30-minute visit to summarize the participant's experience in the clinical trial.

The primary objective of this study is to characterize the real-world outcomes of spinal cord stimulation (SCS) therapy as an aid in the management of chronic intractable pain of the trunk, including unilateral or bilateral pain associated with the following: failed back surgery syndrome, intractable low back pain using the Boston Scientific (BSC) PRECISION Spinal Cord Stimulator System with MultiWave Technology.

The study uses a replicated randomized single case design. Participants were 12 individuals with chronic pain problems and residual problems after undergoing a multimodal pain rehabilitation. They also had comorbid emotional problems. Treatment consisted of 10 weeks of Internet delivered, therapist guided CBT based self-help treatment based on the Unified Protocol.

The central aim of this proposed study is to test a multimodal, mindfulness-oriented intervention designed to disrupt the risk chain leading to prescription opioid dose escalation, opioid misuse and opioid addiction, which are mounting threats to active duty service members and Veterans with chronic pain conditions, who may develop disordered opioid use as a consequence of long-term opioid pharmacotherapy.

Participants with chronic back pain will complete an online prescreen. They will then be randomized to one of two different studies: a placebo vs. waitlist study or a psychotherapy vs. waitlist study, with randomization stratified on pain intensity, age, gender, and opioid use. Participants will then complete an in-person eligibility session, and eligible participants will be scheduled for the baseline assessment session. Following the baseline assessment session, participants will then be randomized to the treatment group or the waitlist group (with a ratio of 2:1 treatment:waitlist), using a computer-generated random sequence. This scheme will result in three equally sized groups-placebo, psychotherapy, and waitlist-as the investigators will collapse data from the waitlist arms in the two studies for analyses. The investigators do not use a standard three-way randomization because the investigators do not want placebo participants to think they are in a control condition. Thus, the investigators constrain participant's expectations to either injection vs. waitlist or to psychotherapy vs. waitlist. The placebo treatment is a subcutaneous injection of saline into the back. Participants will know that the treatment is a placebo, i.e., it is an "open label" placebo. Psychotherapy (8 sessions) will be supervised by Alan Gordon and Howard Schubiner. Functional MRI brain imaging, self-reported clinical outcomes, and behavioral measures will be collected pre- and post-treatment. A brief follow-up survey will be sent at months 1, 2, 3, 6, and 12 after the final assessment session. These will provide longer term data about the trajectory and durability of patient improvement. Additionally, a group of healthy controls, with no history of back pain, will complete the baseline assessment. They will serve as a comparison group to probe whether the patterns of observed brain activity is specific to CBP patients.

Sparing the phrenic nerve by administering ultrasound-guided low volume superior trunk block (STB) and interscalene block (ISB) for arthroscopic shoulder surgery (labral repair, stabilization, rotator cuff repair).

For the past few years, the military has been looking for an innovative way to decrease the use of opioids for chronic pain. This has prompted military treatment facilities to begin integrating complementary and/or alternative medicine modalities into their conventional plans of care. Reiki, a bio-field energy therapy, is one such modality. The purpose of this prospective repeated measure study is to: 1) introduce the concept Reiki therapy to military healthcare beneficiaries experiencing chronic pain, 2) assess pain outcome after receiving six treatments of Reiki therapy, and 3) assess participant's impression of Reiki therapy as a possible complementary and/or alternative option for the management of chronic pain. Thirty military healthcare beneficiaries with the complaint of chronic pain will receive a brief introduction to Reiki therapy followed by six 30-minute Reiki sessions provided by trained Reiki Level 1 Practitioner. Participant's knowledge of Reiki will be assessed using pre and post questionnaires; pain will be assessed using the Brief Pain Inventory, Defense Veterans Pain Rating Scale, DoD (Department of Defense) VA (Veteran's Administration) Pain Supplementary Questionnaire, McGill Pain Questionnaire and pain medication diaries; and participant's impression will be assessed using the Patient Global Impression of Improvement Scale and along with a post study questionnaire. If it is found that Reiki therapy helped in decreasing chronic pain outcomes, this treatment modality may be added to Landstuhl Regional Medical (LRMC) Pain Clinic's pool of complementary and alternative medicine options.

Chronic pain is a costly public health problem that is associated with poor quality of life. Previous research has demonstrated extensive evidence showing that pain coping is not manifested by patients in isolation but within the context of significant relationships such as marriage. For instance, a partner may avoid or reject their partners' negative emotions about pain, provide unempathic responses to their partners' pain, or change their thoughts about pain. The patient's pain experience and the couples' relationship also have a cyclical relationship, in which both can affect each other and the overall quality of life for both partners. Currently, current clinical practice does not target both partners to alleviate pain. This is highly problematic given that a number of chronic pain patients-those with interpersonal distress-often do not complete, and thus, do not benefit fully from existing treatments. Even if treatment is completed, individuals may not maintain improvements if they return to distressed social environments that undermine individual coping efforts. Thus, it is clear that new interventions derived from integrative models of individual and dyadic coping are needed to alleviate pain and suffering in patients who are at risk for poor treatment outcomes. This research study aims to develop a novel psychological intervention aimed at couples in which one partner has chronic pain. Our central hypothesis is that a theoretically integrative intervention that improves both partners' psychological flexibility (i.e., acceptance, mindfulness, values-based action) and relational flexibility (i.e., emotional disclosure, empathic responding) skills will be feasible and valid and that it will alleviate pain and improve quality of life. This is a departure from current practice, which focuses solely on the patient's individual functioning, does not address the spouse's psychological inflexibility, and does not address relationship issues.

Vitalis was a randomized controlled intervention study that addressed women on long-term sick leave in Uppsala County. Participants were on sick leave due to mental illness and/or pain and were expected to reach the time limit within the in health insurance. Of the total of 947 eligible reaching the time limit during 2010-2012 648 persons met the projects inclusion- and exclusion criteria and were invited to participate. Of these, 327 persons (50.4%) gave informed consent and was thereafter randomly assigned one of the following groups: 1) multimodal treatment team (TEAM) 2) psychotherapy with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), or 3) control group. The main purpose of the study was to facilitate the return to work (preventing a return to the public health insurance) and to improve participants' health during the project period of one year.

neuropathic pain can occur following any surgical procedure on the breast ..