Active clinical trials for "Chronic Pain"

The epidemic of opioid overdose deaths continues to rise, killing more persons in 2017 than HIV/AIDS at the height of that epidemic. Medication assisted treatment, including methadone and buprenorphine, is the standard of care for the treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD). However, chronic pain can reduce treatment efficacy during medication assisted treatment and is associated with illicit substance relapse, dropout, and subsequent overdose. Mechanisms by which chronic pain may influence the impulsive decision making (e.g., drug relapse) in persons with OUD have not been well characterized. A better understanding is needed of decision-making in this population. Two factors that can influence decisions to use drugs are impulsivity and acute opioid withdrawal. This proposal will test how chronic pain is associated with increases in impulsive decision making in OUD, whether impulsive decision making is greater when undergoing opioid withdrawal, and how catastrophizing may modify the association between withdrawal and impulsive decision making in patients with chronic pain and OUD. An ideal population for this developmental research project are methadone maintained patients, who show high treatment attendance rates and will therefore assure study efficiency and reliable completion.

The study is a prospective, on-label, multi-center, blinded, randomized controlled trial with a cross-over design to evaluate the effect of Precision Spectra™ SCS System's programming features and lead options.

Around 80% of people with spinal cord injury (SCI) develop chronic neuropathic pain (CNP). This is a debilitating condition with major negative impacts on people's quality of life. Many treatment options have been offered (invasive stimulation, drugs) but provide limited effects and many secondary effects. There is a critical need to develop a new generation of therapies. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a non-invasive and painless brain stimulation technique that allows researchers to explore and change brain excitability that has shown promising effects in neuropathic pain. However there is not enough evidence of what are the long lasting effects of the different protocols. In this study, 30 SCI subjects with CNP in their hands will participate in the study. The objective is to evaluate the efficacy of real versus sham repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and investigate 1) short and long term effects on pain and 2) the behavioral and neurophysiological qualities of responders and non-responders to this treatment.This will be a randomized sham controlled trial with two groups: real or sham high frequency repetitive TMS protocol (20Hz). The protocol will be done daily for two weeks. Clinical, functional and neurophysiological evaluations will be assessed at baseline, post intervention and at 6-week follow up.

Open nephrectomy is one of the most common surgical procedures in urologic practice. Pain after surgery remains a significant clinical problem as it impairs recovery adversely and may lead to the transition to chronic pain. The open approach represents a major physical trauma including postoperative pain and discomfort in the convalescence period. Adequate control of postoperative pain facilitates earlier mobilization and rehabilitation. Patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) is effective to treat pain at rest, but seems to be inadequate for dynamic analgesia and may also elicit side effects that may delay hospital discharge. Preventing early and late postsurgical pain is an important challenge for anesthesiologists and surgeons. Ketamine (N-Methyl-D-Aspartate receptor antagonist) and lidocaine (sodium channel blocker) are popular analgesic adjuvants for improving perioperative pain management. The investigators designed this double-blind, placebo controlled study to test and compare the preventive effects of perioperative intravenous ketamine and lidocaine on early and chronic pain after elective open nephrectomy. The investigators propose a double-blind placebo-controlled study of patients undergoing elective open nephrectomy. All patients will receive normal "patient-controlled analgesia morphine" in addition to study drugs or placebo. Research will be conducted at Charles Nicolle teaching hospital.

Hip osteoarthritis (HOA) is a common cause of pain and disability in aging population. Conservative treatment is based on lifestyle modifications, physical therapy, analgesic and anti-inflammatory medications and intra articular injections. This Prospective Pilot Study aims at investigating the efficacy of Ultrasound-Guided Cooled Radiofrequency Hip Denervation as a treatment offered to patients with HOA.

Chronic Pain, especially neuropathic pain, are adverse events after posterolateral thoracotomy for lung resection. The continuous application of ketamine may have a prophylactic effect and helps to prevent chronic pain. The investigators record the incidence and severity of acute pain and neuropathic pain during a seven day period after thoracotomy as well as the incidence of chronic pain and neuropathic pain after one and three month period. Parallel Group design, comparing one Group with a continuous application (24 hours) of ketamine against a Placebo Group.

The ultimate objective of the proposed line of research is to determine if cryoanalgesia is an effective adjunctive treatment for pain in the period immediately following various painful surgical procedures; and, if this analgesic modality decreases the risk of persistent postoperative pain, or "chronic" pain. The objective of the proposed pilot study is to optimize the protocol and collect data to power subsequent, definitive clinical trials. Specific Aim 1: To determine if, compared with current and customary analgesia, the addition of cryoanalgesia decreases the incidence and severity of post-surgical pain. Hypothesis 1a (primary): The severity of surgically-related pain will be significantly decreased on postoperative day 2 with the addition of cryoanalgesia as compared with patients receiving solely standard-of-care treatment. Hypothesis 1b: The incidence of chronic pain will be significantly decreased one year following surgery with the addition of cryoanalgesia as compared with patients receiving solely standard-of-care treatment. Hypothesis 1c: The severity of chronic pain will be significantly decreased one year following surgery with the addition of cryoanalgesia as compared with patients receiving solely standard-of-care treatment. Specific Aim 2: To determine if, compared with current and customary analgesia, the addition of cryoanalgesia improves postoperative functioning. Hypothesis 2a: Following primary unilateral knee and shoulder arthroplasty as well as rotator cuff repair, joint range of motion will be significantly increased within the year following surgery with the addition of cryoanalgesia as compared with patients receiving solely standard-of-care treatment. Hypothesis 2b: Following video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery, inspiratory spirometry will be improved within the month following surgery with the addition of cryoanalgesia as compared with patients receiving solely standard-of-care treatment.

Flowonix Prometra® II Programmable Pump may require a smaller dose of drug when converting from other commercially available intrathecal drug delivery systems (IDDS).

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.

The primary objective of the current study is to establish the safety and acceptability of Mindful Yoga Therapy as an adjunctive treatment for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and chronic pain among OEF/OIF/OND Veterans. The current study also seeks to establish preliminary efficacy of MYT for reduction of PTSD and chronic pain symptoms and explore anxiety sensitivity as a mechanism of therapeutic action.