Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial Evaluating Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) in Chronic Pain Patients With Neuropathy
Overview
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Intervention
- Not specified
- Conditions
- Neuropathic Pain
- Sponsor
- Charite University, Berlin, Germany
- Enrollment
- 17
- Locations
- 1
- Primary Endpoint
- relative pain intensity
- Status
- Terminated
- Last Updated
- 3 years ago
Overview
Brief Summary
This study evaluates the effect of additional transcranial direct stimulation (tDCS) on pain in patients with chronic neuropathic pain undergoing treatment with regional anaesthesiological techniques.
Detailed Description
About 3.8 Million persons in Germany suffer from chronic pain with a relevant physical and social impairment representing approximately 7% of the population. Chronic pain conditions include patients with neuropathic pain such as trigeminal neuralgia, post-zoster pain or pain after amputations. There is a significant number of patients with pain without response to optimised drug therapy. Especially in these chronic pain patients there is data demonstrating maladaptive plasticity as pathophysiological evidence of structural changes in brain connectivity. Patients are treated with multimodal pain therapy concepts including interventional procedures with nerve infiltration techniques. One innovative therapeutic option for pain patients is transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS): In recent clinical trials, patients reported on reduced overall pain intensity following tDCS stimulation series shown e.g. from Bolognini et al., Antal et al. and most recently from Volz and colleagues. However, there is no current data available evaluating a role of tDCS for patients with chronic neuropathic pain treated with regional anaesthesiological techniques. Objective: To evaluate effect of additional tDCS series on pain in patients with chronic neuropathic pain Primary study endpoint: relative reduction in pain (initial VAS measured versus VAS after completion of the therapy series) as a numeric value between 0 and 10.
Investigators
Sascha Tafelski
physician scientist
Charite University, Berlin, Germany
Eligibility Criteria
Inclusion Criteria
- •Patients with neuropathic pain with indication of regional anaesthesiological interventions
Exclusion Criteria
- •\<18 years of age
- •Pregnancy
- •Police custody
- •Participation in another prospective clinical intervention study within the last 30 days
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
relative pain intensity
Time Frame: after completion of therapy series, typically after 2 weeks of treatment
relative reduction in pain intensity (initial VAS measured versus VAS after completion of the therapy series), VAS as a numeric value between 0 and 10.
Secondary Outcomes
- time to next regional-anesthesiological series(6 months)
- adverse events(1 months)
- acute pain reduction by tDCS application (relative reduciton measured as VAS after completion of tDCS stimulation versus initial VAS measured before stimulation)(30 Minutes after application)
- number of regional-anesthesiological interventions for pain control(10 days)