Active clinical trials for "Chronic Pain"

RATIONALE: Certain psychological and social factors may increase the risk of developing chronic pain after surgery. Evaluating these factors over time in patients who have undergone surgery for breast cancer may help doctors plan treatment and improve patients' quality of life. PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying the psychological and social factors that may increase the risk of developing chronic pain after surgery in women with breast cancer .

The purpose of this study is to determine whether application of low dose Delta9-Tetrahydrocannabinol can prevent the development of chronic pain in patients with acute CRPS.

To determine whether participation in a cognitive training program over a training period of five weeks improves cognitive flexibility in patients with chronic hip, knee, and back pain.

The use of titrated drugs is at the base of a successful antalgic treatment in order to provide both an adequate relief and a satisfactory tolerability profile. These molecules, though, have a varying degree of efficacy in different subjects due to medical and genetic reasons. The latter are mainly represented by cytochrome (CYP) P450, in particular CYP2D6's polymorphisms are responsible for the diversified metabolism of analgesics used in chronic pain treatments. Four main types of enzymatic metabolism make up the population, each one defined by a different CYP2D6 allele: extensive metabolizers, ultra-rapid metabolizers, intermediate metabolizers and poor metabolizers. Moreover, regarding polytherapies, the analgesics' metabolism could be influenced by coadministration of other drugs, thus determining an inhibition or induction of the metabolic enzymes - known as phenocopying - and potentially also a change in the metabolic phenotype itself. The final outcome is the inconstancy of effectiveness and of the risk of developing side effects. The primary objective of this study is to define a genetic pattern for the gene CYP2D6 by assessing the incidence of poor or ultrarapid metabolizers in a population of chronic pain patients. This will also allow to observe phenocopying in the same population. Hence 100 patients diagnosed with chronic pain will be enrolled. The genetic pattern of the gene CYP2D6 of such patients will be examined by taking mouth samples. At the same time parametric tests for paired data to survey the correlations between phenotypical patterns and pharmacological therapies will be conducted.

-Background: Cancer is one of the most common cause of death. Cancer pain is often cited as one of the most feared in cancer patients. Although, WHO guidelines have been provided to improve pain outcome, the results are still unsatisfied. In order to improve cancer pain management we consider to contribute a new guideline which includes interdisciplinary approach, early doing the pain interventions, breakthrough pain, education, high quality of pain assessment and contribute the effectiveness follow-up system

The primary objectives of this study are to: Evaluate recruitment procedures and adherence rates; Evaluate the ability to understand the concepts of pain neurophysiology; Evaluate the acceptability of an intervention program based on pain neuroscience education and exercise by institutionalized older adults and the institutions where they are.

Approximately 20,000 patients are treated in intensive care units (ICU) in Finland annually. During ICU stay many diagnostic and other procedures as well as immobilization and underlying diseases may cause pain. Therefore the incidence of pain in ICU patients can be high. Acute pain may cause several detrimental effects including respiratory distress, tissue hypoxia, immunosuppression and anxiety. After discharge many survivors of critical care have lower health-related quality of life, symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder or persistent pain. Only few studies with a focus on acute or persistent pain in ICU patients have been made, hence the incidence and risk factors for ICU-related pain is not very well known. Some of the identified risk factors for persisting pain may be increased age, sepsis or inadequate pain management during ICU stay. Opioids are most often used for analgesics in intensive care. Because they may have several adverse effects the use must be based on validated pain scales. Many factors such as sedation, relaxation or delirium of the patient complicates the management of the pain. This prospective observational study aims to determine the incidence and risk factors for acute and persistent pain in ICU patients as well as and the use of analgesics during intensive care.

Due to its high prevalence and the substantial individual and socio-economic burden chronic pain is a huge challenge for patients, physicians and the society. Using neuroimaging structural and functional alterations have been described in the brain of patients suffering from chronic pain (Apkarian, Hashmi et al. 2011, Baliki and Apkarian 2015). However, reproducibility and functional significance of these changes are only incompletely understood. For example it remains unclear, if these changes covariate with clinical parameters and if they can be influenced or reversed by appropriate therapy. Some of the structural and functional brain changes in chronic pain patients have been shown to be reversible using magnetic resonance imaging after successful interventional pain treatment (Seminowicz, Wideman et al. 2011) or cognitive-behavioral therapy (Seminowicz, Shpaner et al. 2013, Shpaner, Kelly et al. 2014). Interdisciplinary multimodal pain therapy (IMPT) as a biopsychosocial treatment approach comprising physiotherapy and psychotherapy in structured programs has been shown to be effective in alleviating chronic pain of different entities including those where interventional therapy options are lacking or have been unsuccessful (Kaiser, Treede et al. 2017). The present study aims to investigate the influence of a structured IMPT approach provided in a day-clinic program of 20 treatment days on the functional brain network structure in chronic pain patients. To this end, a graph-theory based analysis (Bullmore and Sporns 2009) will be applied to electroencephalography (EEG) resting-state data from 30 chronic pain patients before and after IMPT and results will be correlated with behavioral and clinical data. In this observational study chronic pain patients that have been screened for participation in IMPT as part of routine medical care are invited to participate in a baseline visit prior to participation and a follow-up visit 6 months after completion of the program. This will add to a better understanding of the complex functional brain alterations in chronic pain and might contribute to identify neuronal markers or even predictors for therapeutic responses in multimodal pain treatments. Moreover, the broad availability and easy applicability of EEG-measurements might enable a wide therapeutic application of potential findings in the near future.

This prospective, consecutive cohort study presents nationwide 5-year outcome data on patients with severe persistent pain after groin hernia repair (SPG). The inclusion criteria were SPG-related impairment of physical and social life. Two-hundred-four out of 222 patients (92%) were analyzed. Relevant surgical records were obtained, and examinations were by standardized clinical and neurophysiological tests. Patients demonstrating pain sensitivity to pressure algometry in the groin were evaluated regarding exploratory surgery, while patients with putative neuropathic pain received pharmacotherapy. Questionnaires at baseline (Q0) and five-year (Q5Y) were used in outcome-analyses of pain-intensity (numeric rating scale [NRS] 0-10) and the pain-related effect on the activity-of-daily-living (Activities Assessment Scale, AAS).

Genetic variability from epigenetic modification of genes related to pain physiology and opioid pharmacodynamics may influence susceptibility to high-impact chronic musculoskeletal pain, opioid efficacy, and vulnerability to opioid abuse. Exploring the role of epigenomics and opioid addiction may improve understanding and treatment of these complex multifactorial conditions and, potentially, reduce their development.