Active clinical trials for "Chronic Pain"

Chronic pain is becoming increasingly more prevalent worldwide. High rates of co-morbid psychological distress are also commonly found among individuals living with chronic pain. Often requiring a multi-modal treatment approach, a growing body of literature suggests that digital behavioral health interventions and tools may serve as promising complementary options to help individuals cope with the pain.

This randomized controlled trial examines the effect of nature exposure on pain intensity levels among older adults who experience chronic pain. Investigators examine the effects of nature on: the experience of chronic pain, on pain catastrophizing, and on attention restoration.

The present investigation aims at exploring the effect of including a pain app called Pain Monitor irruptive oncological pain for chronic pain patients' daily monitoring. Two conditions will be set: usual treatment (waiting list) usual treatment + APP

This study is a randomized controlled trial to test the efficacy AtEase, a pain self-management app in a sample of Veterans with chronic musculoskeletal pain. The primary outcome is changes in PEG scores from baseline to final follow-up (12 months).

Chronic pain is one of the most prevalent and debilitating medical conditions and opioid analgesics are a commonly prescribed class of medications in the United States. Opioid efficacy has been proven in terms of managing acute and chronic pain; however, opioid overdose deaths, addictions, and diversions have all continued to increase over the years. The purpose of this study is to increase patient engagement in pain management and education, and to decrease opioid use by 10% over the study period. This study will also help present opportunities for future studies to obtain insight regarding the chronic use of opioids.

A post market study evaluating the safety of the Prodigy MRI and Proclaim Elite MR conditional Spinal Cord Stimulator (SCS) systems.

Depression is common among individuals with chronic illness such as chronic heart failure (CHF) or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and is a strong predictor of poor clinical outcomes and high rates of avoidable 30-day readmissions. While depression is a treatable condition, few people with depression receive effective treatment. The proposed study aims to develop a relational agent system to deliver depression treatment to patients with chronic illness and comorbid depression. While depression is a treatable condition, less than 36% of people with depression receive effective treatment. The proposed study aims to design and develop a technology-driven relational agent system to deliver a 6 module, blended approach of cognitive behavioral therapy and self-management education (RA-CBT) to support patients with CHF or COPD and comorbid depression. The relational agent is a human animation program that interacts with patients, integrates best practices from provider-patient communication theory, emulating the face-to-face conversational behavior of an empathic provider emphasizing nonverbal communicative behavior such as gaze, posture, gestures, etc. The RA-CBT program will be accessed via tablet technology by participants. The study investigators will conduct a pre-post feasibility study to understand the feasibility and acceptability of using the RA-CBT system and its effectiveness in treating comorbid depression. If successful, this new approach to depression treatment would immediately expand access and scalability for post-discharge mental health support in the care transition.

Many studies had stated that the coeliac plexus neurolysis (CPN) is a safe and effective treatment method of pain associated with pancreatic cancer. The neurolytic injectate is usually alcohol 50-100%; however, phenol >5% is also possible to use. Nowadays, there are several techniques to access the coeliac plexus (per cutaneous using fluoroscopy or computed tomographic imaging (CT), surgical and endoscopic ultrasound). However, the percutaneous computed tomography guided technique is the gold standard technique, it has multiple drawbacks as availability and cost of imaging modality, exposure to radiation and multiple complications.Surgical technique in spite of being easy, cheap but there is a controversy about its efficacy. Also there is no head to head comparison between the surgical technique and the percutaneous technique.In this study we hypothesized that intraoperative technique has the same efficacy of percutaneous celiac block technique with less complication and cost

Pain is a powerful motivator of behavior and it is more than the perception of nociceptive input. It is a complex experience that comprises different components: sensory discriminative, emotional-motivational and cognitive components. In chronic pain, a negative hedonic shift has been proposed that is characterized by disproportionally increased emotional-motivational compared to sensory-discriminative pain components. Such a negative hedonic shift is mirrored in a high comorbidity of chronic pain with affective disorders like depression and anxiety. However, the neurobiological mechanisms underlying such a negative hedonic shift i remain elusive. Animal work suggests an involvement of neuroinflammation, caused by chronic pain, which in turn is related to impaired release of the neurotransmitter dopamine. In line with this observation, impaired dopamine functioning has been described in chronic pain. Importantly, dopamine acts also as a neuromodulator, regulating functional connectivity between brain regions. Therefore, dysfunctional dopamine in chronic pain, possibly caused by neuroinflammation, might lead to altered blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response and functional connectivity. Correspondingly, altered functional connectivity in fronto-striatal brain networks has been shown to be predictive of transition from subacute to chronic pain. The aim of this study is to investigate the psychobiological mechanisms underlying the negative hedonic shift in chronic pain with a focus on the role of dopamine in functional connectivity of fronto-striatal brain networks, BOLD response of frontostriatal regions and their relation to heightened emotional-motivational pain processing.

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.