Active clinical trials for "Back Pain"

Non-specific chronic low back pain guidelines recommend rehabilitation along with a biopsychosocial approach. However, though psychological and social issues address important needs of professionals and patients, they have been scarcely developed in this area so far. Noteworthy, little is known about patients' expectations relative to physiotherapy for chronic low back pain (CLBP), while professional recommendations advocate taking them into consideration. A study about patients' experience will provide knowledge about the ill person's perspective and how the physiotherapists are perceived as well as the role attributed to them. The aim of this study is, thus, to explore the experience of the patients suffering from CLBP in order to highlight their expectations toward physiotherapy services and physiotherapists. The investigators will apply a critically interpretive socio-anthropological approach based on patients' interviews and observations in an intensive CLBP rehabilitation program. The results will help improve the care patients receive by facilitating the integration of biopsychosocial issues related to patient's expectations into the treatment.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of pregabalin comparing with the conventional analgesic care in chronic low back pain patients with accompanying lower limb pain (neuropathic component) treated in primary care settings under routine clinical practice.

Manual treatment offers benefit to some patients suffering from back pain but little is known about which of the many tissue layers are affected. This study will help identify which tissues may be stimulated sufficiently to be a source for the clinical effects of treatment and to prioritize future work to understand mechanisms of back pain and to improve care. Current soft-tissue ultrasound elastography techniques, under static condition, will be extended to quantify relative displacement and strains(active and passive)across the depth of tissue strata that arise from small amplitude motions during continuous passive motion clinical procedures and in weight bearing postures. Relative movement of the stratified layers of the back, from treatment and task-generated perturbations, will enable the elastography interrogation of the tissue.

The purpose of this study is whether patients suffering from chronic back pain for more than one year will show a specific neurophysiological pattern in the EEG. This pattern is referred to as Thalamo-Cortical Dysrhythmia (TCD) and consists most likely of a self sustaining loop between the Cortex and Thalamus. This pattern has been found before in patients with very severe chronic pain. Specific lesions to the Thalamus result in a reduction of this pattern and decrease in pain. With this study the investigators will assess whether this pattern can be found in back pain patients of different types. Patients will be measured by EEG for the existence of TCD and will undergo detailed pain and psychological diagnostic.

Eighty percent of Canadians experience low back pain (LBP) at some point in their life (Waddell, 1987), with a point prevalence of up to 30 percent (O'Sullivan, 2005; Waddell, 1987). Low back pain has severe economic ramifications. Most incidents of low back pain occur during the prime working years of life, with an estimated cost to the economy at $14,744 Canadian dollars per person per year (Health Canada, 1998). Indirect costs in the form of long-term disability were highest for disorders of arthritis and chronic back pain (Health Canada, 1998). It has been estimated that 12 percent of patients will experience disability within one year after their first episode of low back pain (Banner, 2006). Evidence based diagnosis and treatment is important for desirable outcomes. The investigators predict that there will be changes in A) trunk muscle electromyographic patterns and in temporo-spatial gait patterns following osteopathic treatment.

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between pain, and balance, proprioception sensation in the knee, erector spinae and multifidus muscle strength in individuals with non-specific low back pain.

Exercise and education is recommended as the first-line treatment by evidence-based, international guidelines for low back pain (LBP). Despite consensus regarding treatment, there is a gap between guidelines and what is offered to patients and less than half of the patients with nonspecific low back pain receive proper first-line care. The aim of this study was to examine the short-term effect in pain and function in people with nonspecific LBP, participating in the digitally delivered treatment program Joint Academy.

This is an observational study that aims to characterize individual response of patients getting physical therapy for chronic non-specific low back pain. Participants will be classified based on a questionnaire and motor tests to investigate whether individual improvement after physical therapy may be predicted. These observations may help to decide which should be the preferred treatment offered.

This is study testing the feasibility of collecting neurophysiological measures of outcome related to body-based interventions for low back pain. The investigators will collect fMRI and psychophysical data about pain sensitivity before and after the interventions. Participants will be randomly assigned to either spinal manipulation or therapeutic touch groups. Participants will attend two practice sessions prior to the first data collection. There will be two follow-up assessments.

We are doing this research study to learn about how acupuncture treatment works. This study is being done to look at changes in the brain, NOT to treat pain. We want to learn about brain activity during acupuncture. We will look at brain activity when a heating device touches the skin of a subject before and after the subject has acupuncture, to see what changes.