Active clinical trials for "Somatoform Disorders"

Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is one of the most commonly undertaken neuromodulatory surgery techniques in the treatment of neuropathic pain. The indication for SCS is an ineffective conservative treatment of chronic pain syndromes. The effectiveness of SCS in the case of neuropathic pain is high. The positive result of SCS treatment is the reduction of previous painful symptoms by min. 50% and / or a reduction in the amount of taken analgesics and an improvement in the quality of life including sleep quality. Long-term studies estimate that in a properly selected group of patients more than 50% of patients achieve pain reduction by the required 50% and about 60% - 70% have an improvement in the quality of life and a reduction of pain. The efficacy of SCS in different modes of stimulation is evaluated. Patients receive four different types of stimulation for 2-week period - not knowing what kind of stimulation it is. It is said that in one type of stimulation they would feel parestesias and in other three they would not. Patients are not informed that beside tonic, burst and high frequency stimulation, the fourth is an off stimulation to check for placebo effect. The test is double-blinded

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.

The study aims to evaluate the effect of low load resistance training combined with blood flow restriction or sham blood flow restriction in patients with anterior knee pain and rotator cuff related shoulder pain in a cross-over two-arm randomized, participant and assessor blinded design. More specifically, we aim to investigate the acute and short-term hypoalgesic response (by evaluating pressure pain detection thresholds) of low load exercise with blood flow restriction or sham blood flow restriction, the effect of these interventions in pain during clinical testing, and the possibility of a placebo effect.

Myofascial pain syndrome (MPS) is characterized by single or multiple trigger points (TrP) in taut bands within the affected muscles. Chronic MPS over neck is prevalent and responsible for markedly loss of work-day and a reduction of quality of life. Intravascular laser irradiation of blood (ILIB) involves in vivo illumination of the blood by low-level laser light through an optical fiber inserted in a vein. Researches disclosed that ILIB reduced blood viscosity, enhanced erythrocyte deformity, and increased oxygen saturation in blood. However, no research studies the effectiveness of ILIB to treat MPS. Real-time sonoelastography (RTS) and shear wave velocity (SWV) are used to detect the stiffness of skeletal muscles. RTS is displayed as a color-coded graphic to represent the relative stiffness of structures. For a given material, faster SWV indicates the greater stiffness. To our knowledge, only one research using RTS and SWV to study MPS. To elucidate the effectiveness of ILIB to treat chronic MPS over neck, and the validity of RTS and SWV for MPS, we conducted this study.

Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a disease provoking chronic pain in the limbs, following a trauma. Patient care is complicated by the variable clinical picture and response to treatment. The stress level of the organization, for chronic pain impacts the regulation of the autonomic balance. The study of time and frequency domain analysis of Heart Rate Variability (HRV) allows non-invasive and reproducible assessment of the autonomic balance.

Fibromyalgia pain syndrome is a common debilitating condition which associates mainly generalised pain, emotional distress and cognitive symptoms. The etiology is unknown, and no specific treatment exists so far. Lately, shock-waves have been used successfully to treat painful skeletal muscle, tendons and fascia, the investigators therefore hypothesize that shock-waves could be useful in alleviating Fibromyalgia pain. Two similar groups of participants bearing the condition will be prospectively compared. The first group will benefit from the application of shock-waves weekly for 12 weeks, the second will not. The investigators intend to study if there is any difference in pain and quality of life between the two groups at the end of the three months.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether pregabalin is an effective treatment for Chronic Prostatitis/Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome.

Fibromyalgia is a medical condition characterized by musculoskeletal pain, fatigue, sleep disturbances and depression. It affects population at a socioeconomically active age and represents a burden for the patients and the health care system due to its personal and functional implications. At this moment, there is no completely effective treatment for fibromyalgia, and acupuncture has been a promising alternative. This trial aims to evaluate if addition of acupuncture to standard care represents an improvement in comparison with standard care only. Thus, patients enrolled in this trial will be randomly allocated into one of two groups: group A, who besides standard treatment will receive 12 sessions of acupuncture; and group B, who will receive standard care with monthly orientation sessions for the same period. Patients will be evaluated at baseline, after completion of acupuncture treatment or orientation, and after an additional 12-week follow up. Evaluation will be based on diaries of pain and medication, and standard scales of pain, quality of life and disability.

Temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) are the major cause of non-dental pain in orofacial area. Laser therapy can be considered as one of the most recent treatment approaches in the field of physiotherapy. The special features of laser light such as coherence, monochromaticity, and collimation can result in the ability of laser light to modify cellular metabolism, increase tissue repair and reduce edema and inflammation. Several studies demonstrated successful results regarding the use of low level lasers in releasing pain of musculoskeletal conditions, but there are also contradictory reports in this field, and the clinical effectiveness of this treatment modality has been debated in some review articles. A few studies evaluated the efficacy of low level laser therapy in the treatment of temporomandibular disorders and the associated myofacial pain. There are remarkable variations in the methodology of these researches and some reported insufficient data regarding the physical properties of the laser used. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of low level laser therapy in improving the sign and symptoms of patients suffering from myofacial pain syndrome.

The purpose of this study is to compare postprandial distress syndrome and epigastric pain syndrome in demographics psychological features, infection of Helicobacter pylori, gastric emptying and therapeutic response to lansoprazole.