Pain Clinical Trials in Baltimore, MD

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness, safety, and tolerability of SUZ for acute pain after laparoscopic procedures of the intraperitoneal or retroperitoneal cavities or arthroscopic orthopedic procedures. Read Less

The purpose of this study is to test photobiomodulation (PBM) with a non-invasive light device for reducing discomfort during dental treatments in children. We plan to conduct a series of three clinical studies in 200 school-aged children requiring routine dental treatment. The first study aims to test if PBM works for tooth and soft tissue by assessing response to cold testing and probing of gums. The second study aims to test if use of PBM on soft tissues before injection reduces discomfort. The third study aims to test if PBM can be used to do simple dental fillings in baby teeth without numbing injection. Read Less

The purpose of this single-arm trial is to determine the feasibility of emotional awareness and expression therapy (EAET) for individuals with persistent pain following orthopedic trauma. As part of this study, participants will be asked to attend weekly EAET treatment sessions and complete assessments (including pre-treatment, post-treatment, and follow-up) consisting of questionnaires and sensory testing procedures. Read Less

This study seeks to improve the treatment of chronic pain in people who are taking buprenorphine (also known as Suboxone, Subutex, Zubsolv). The research study is testing two different interventions along with usual clinical care: 1. Pain Self-Management (PSM): an educational program in which individuals with chronic pain work with a trained pain coach and a pain peer to explore strategies to effectively manage the daily problems that arise from chronic pain. 2. Patient-Oriented Dosing (POD): an alternative dosing of buprenorphine which will be adjusted based on pain levels. The interventions will take place over a period of 12 weeks (3 months). Additionally, participants will complete surveys every 3 months for a period of 1 year (total of 5 survey visits). Participants will receive $50 compensation for each survey visit completed (up to $250 over one year) and can receive up to an additional $100 bonus compensation. There are risks associated with participating in the study, including breach of confidentiality, psychological distress caused by discussing difficult topics, and risks associated with the POD intervention. Read Less

Persistent pain is a public health epidemic. The current protocol seeks to develop technology to aid patients' tracking of patients' pain, medications and pain-related variables. The investigators seek to talk with patients in co-investigator's clinic to solicit feedback, as well as pilot test the technology with pain patients. Read Less

Placebo effects held an ambivalent place in health care for at least two centuries. On the one hand, placebos are traditionally used as controls in clinical trials to correct for biases and the placebo response is viewed as an effect to be factored out in order to isolate and accurately measure the effects of the treatment. On the other hand, there is scientific evidence that placebo effects represent fascinating psychoneurobiological events involving the contribution of distinct central nervous as well as peripheral physiological mechanisms that influence pain perception and clinical pain symptoms and substantially modulate the response to pain therapeutics. Therefore, placebo effects have shifted from being a challenge for clinical trials to a resource to trigger the reduction of pain based on endogenous mechanisms that can be activated in the brain to promote hypolagesia, self-healing, and well-being. This is relevant in acute pain settings given that chronic opioid users die within approximately 2.5 years of being prescribed their first opioid medication to treat acute pain. The overall hypothesis is that observational learning influences neural pain modulation and cognition systems, including processes associated with mentalizing (the ability to cognitively understand mental states of others), empathy (the ability to share an emotional experience), and expectancy (the anticipation of a benefit). The objective is to determine the brain mechanisms of observationally-induced analgesia using brain mapping approaches that target changes in blood oxygenation and oscillatory activity in the brain, thus enabling investigators to draw inferences about the localization and extent of neurobiological activation underlying hypoalgesia driven by observation. Therefore, the investigators designed innovative experiments using pharmacological fMRI, EEG, and combined EEG-fMRI measurements. Read Less

This project examines, in chronic pain, the mechanisms of immersive virtual reality compared to the mechanisms of placebo hypoalgesia. The potential of developing new non-pharmacological premises for low-risk interventions for pain management is high. Read Less

This project examines, in chronic pain, the mechanisms of immersive virtual reality compared to the mechanisms of placebo hypoalgesia. The potential of developing new non-pharmacological premises for low-risk interventions for pain management is high. Read Less

The goal of this free-choice parallel design clinical trial is to examine the potential beneficial effects of using open-label placebo (OLP) in improving chronic pain related outcomes and sleep quality in people with temporomandibular disorders. This study will enroll a cohort of participants with temporomandibular disorders (TMD) which lasts for more than 3 months. The main questions it aims to answer are: 1. Will participants with TMD be more likely to take open-label placebo pills if they are introduced to the effects of placebo (e.g., going through an expectation management session)? 2. Will taking open-label placebo plus expectation management improve chronic pain related outcomes, such as chronic pain intensity, interference, levels of anxiety and depression, in the cohort of TMD? 3. Will open-label placebo plus expectation management improve sleep quality in participants suffering from TMD? To answer the above questions, participants with TMD will be randomly assigned to three groups: 1. Open-label placebo plus expectation management group, where participants will complete a 1-hour discussion session about their expectations toward open-lable placebo intervention, and then take 1 open-labe placebo pill per day for a total of 45 days. 2. Open-label placebo only group where participants will be asked to take open-label placebo pills, one pill per day, for a total of 45 days. 3. standard of care group where participants will maintain their usual care without introducing open-label placebo to them during the 45 days monitoring. Researchers will compare the chronic pain intensity, interference, mood, anxiety, and sleep quality between the open-label placebo group and the wait-list group. Daily chronic pain will be measured using visual analog scale (VAS) ranging from 0=no pain at all to 100=maximum tolerable pain. Chronic pain interference using Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) pain interference and pain behavior. Anxiety and depression will be measured using PROMIS-anxiety, and PROMIS-depression scales respectively. Finally, sleep quality will be quantified using the objective measurement Motion Watch during the 45 days intervention and monitoring. In order to have a rigorous measurement of the baseline pain and sleep fluctuation, this study will include a 7-day phenotyping period before the starting of the 45-day intervention and monitoring. During the 7-day phenotyping period, participants will record their daily chronic pain and sleep quality using polysomnography. Read Less

This study will evaluate whether once versus twice daily dosing of methadone will be an effective method for managing comorbid pain and opioid use disorder. Read Less

Two arm, pragmatic, randomized controlled multicenter Phase III noninferiority trial evaluating the efficacy of standard pain management without NSAIDs (Group 1) vs. standard pain management plus up to 6 weeks of NSAIDs (Group 2) in the treatment of tibial shaft fractures. Read Less

There are evidence based processes for assessment and management of pain using pharmacologic and nonpharmacological approaches. These were reviewed and included within the Pain Management Clinical Practice Guideline (Pain Management CPG) recently developed by AMDA: The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine. There are, however, many challenges to translating the use of Clinical Practice Guidelines into clinical settings. To overcome these challenges we developed and previously tested a theoretically based approach and merged this approach with the Pain Management CPG, which is referred to as the PAIN-CLINICAL PRACTICE GUIDELINE-USING THE EVIDENCE INTEGRATION TRIANGLE (PAIN-CPG-EIT). The PAIN-CPG-EIT involves a research nurse facilitator working with an identified community champion(s) and stakeholder team for 12 months to provide the following four components: Component I: Establishing and meeting monthly with a Stakeholder Team; Component II: Education of the staff; Component III: Mentoring and motivating the staff to address pain; Component IV: Ongoing evaluation of resident pain outcomes. Twelve communities will be included with 25 residents living with dementia and pain recruited from each community. Six communities will be randomized to treatment (PAIN-CPG-EIT) and six randomized to education only (EO) which involves providing the same education to staff as is done in Component II of PAIN-CPG-EIT. The primary aim of this study is to test the effectiveness of use of the PAIN-CPG-EIT to improve the assessment, diagnosis and management of pain and decrease pain intensity among nursing home residents living with dementia between baseline, 4 and 12 months and evaluate treatment fidelity. A secondary aim of the study is to consider differences in measurement, treatment and response to treatment between male and female and Black versus White residents living with dementia. Findings from this study will help build on the currently limited information about pain presentation and management among older adults living with dementia in nursing homes and improve health equity of aging populations experiencing pain. Read Less