Active clinical trials for "Chronic Pain"

Endometriosis, vulvodynia, and fibromyalgia are chronic pain conditions that cause great suffering. Despite the significant prevalence of all three conditions, they are receiving relatively little attention in psychological treatment research. Despite the popularity of methods that rely on aggregated group data, such as randomized controlled trials (RCTs), concerns have been raised in recent years about the generalizability of results from these methods to the individual level - group-to-individual generalizability. Since psychological treatments in the clinic are focused on enhancing the well-being of a specific individual this might affect how researchers should study these conditions. The current project aims to investigate: (a) item suitability for daily assessment of psychological variables, (b) group-to-individual generalizability in outcome measures frequently used in psychological studies and treatments of chronic pain, (c) relations over time between process and outcome variables, and (d) possible differences in results obtained across three pain conditions.

This case-control study in patients with knee osteoarthritis and pain-free control individuals aims to develop a brain biomarker of endogenous analgesia that may be used in subsequent clinical trials. Deficits in central nervous system (CNS) pain inhibition may contribute to chronic pain intensity, but quantitative sensory testing (QST) methods are limited. Incorporating brain imaging to assessments of CNS pain inhibition, by examining activity in relevant brain networks, would allow for an objective, physiologic measure of CNS pain inhibition. Preliminary data in pain-free volunteers implicate cortical activity measured with functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) during CNS pain inhibition. Broadly, the investigators hypothesize that variability in CNS pain inhibition contributes to variability in clinical pain intensity.

The overall objective of this study is to better understand how Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is the most helpful in terms of management of chronic pain symptoms. The studies hypothesis is that an Interventional Response Phenotyping study (light phenotyping) can identify individuals with different underlying mechanisms for their pain who thus respond differentially to evidence-based interventions for chronic pain disorders.

The purpose of this study will be to investigate the optimization of spinal cord stimulation with ECAPs in patients with spinal cord implants.

The primary objective of the study is to describe the different phenotyping of pain in systemic scleroderma patients and perturbations of mechanisms of the pain. As secondary objectives, the study aims to describe the importances of overall symptoms in alteration of quality of life and conserve the questions which will be associated in a unique questionnaire in order to evaluate the pain, the fatigue and the sleeping disorders in diffused systemic scleroderma patients.

The aim of the study is to test the hypothesis that oral taking of baclofen in therapeutic dosage for 60 days is equally effective as injection of botulinum toxin type "A" in the area of trigger points of the pelvic muscles.

Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is indicated for selected patients with chronic pain who have not responded to conventional medical management. Forty (40) patients indicated for SCS placement and presenting to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Interventional Pain Management Clinic in Little Rock, Arkansas will be recruited for this study. Prior to temporary stimulator placement, patients will complete symptom-related questionnaires and provide a blood sample. Demographic and clinical characteristics will be obtained through medical record review. Patients will complete the same questionnaires and provide a blood sample at each of the routine clinical care follow-up visits.

The investigators aim to determine whether cervical paravertebral muscle twitching during motor testing as part of performing cervical RFAs is associated with a greater likelihood of treatment success, and greater magnitude or duration of analgesia. The investigators propose a straightforward grading scale based on visual and tactile information readily available during RFA procedures as part of routine practice (per radiofrequency electrode: 0 = no twitches palpated or observed; 1 = twitches palpated but not observed; 2 = twitches palpated and observed at 1-2 levels; 3= twitches palpated and observed at >2 levels). If a higher weighted score (total score divided by number of radiofrequency lesion sites) correlates with a greater likelihood of treatment success, or magnitude or duration of analgesia following cervical RFA, cervical paraspinal muscle twitching may serve as a readily obtainable prognostic factor (marker) for effectiveness.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic and progressive disease that results from characteristic pathological changes in the tissues of the entire joint, resulting in failure in the component parts. OA is one of the most common causes of disability in adults due to pain and altered joint function, impacting patients' quality of life. Treatment is based on decreasing pain and improving function, involving non-pharmacological, pharmacological, and surgical management. First-line treatment involves non-pharmacological and pharmacological measures. When OA is very advanced, total joint replacement surgery is recommended. However, for patients refractory to conservative treatment and unwilling or unable to undergo arthroplasty, few options remain. Recently, several studies involving minimally invasive procedures are being recommended. Among them is the cooled radiofrequency technique, causing neurotomy by thermal activity, thus reducing the patient's perception of pain. The classical therapeutic target for this technique are the genicular nerves of the knee. However, more recent studies have shown that these classical targets do not provide complete pain relief and have suggested new therapeutic targets, comprising besides the genicular nerves, the recurrent peroneal nerve and the infra-patellar branch of the saphenous nerve. In order to validate these revised targets, new studies need to be done. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to evaluate the efficacy of the cooled radiofrequency procedure using classical and revised targets, and to compare pain intensity, knee function, quality of life, analgesic consumption and adverse effects of both techniques. Key words: Osteoarthritis of the knee. Sensory nerve denervation. Classical targets. Revised targets.

The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) has limited data on baseline quality of life measures and objective measures of function, for active serving members with chronic pain. This study aims to collect this data using patient reported outcomes and 2 minute walk test (2MWT) while validating the newly created Elevation Movement Lift Off Test (EMLi) and correlating the data with heart rate variability (HRV) while comparing performance to healthy controls