Pain Paid Clinical Trials in Maryland

Objective The current proposal investigates behavioral, psychophysiological, and social processes that may help explain biases and disparate outcomes in pain. Health disparities, or health outcomes that adversely affect disadvantaged populations, are pervasive and apparent in many diseases and symptoms, including pain. Pain is the number one reason individuals seek medical treatment. Health disparities in pain encompass both differences in pain experience and treatment for pain. For instance, research indicates that Black individuals report increased pain and have reduced pain tolerance relative to White individuals, yet doctors are less likely to treat minority patients pain and underestimate their pain experience. This project aims to address this systemic discrepancy by focusing on interpersonal processes that may contribute to these disparities, including socially-relevant responses to pain (i.e. pain expression) and pain assessment (e.g. visual attention). The proposed research aims to determine whether the study of pain expressions and their assessment can yield insights on how social factors shape pain and its treatment. Further, we test the efficacy of potential interventions designed to improve accuracy and reduce biases in pain assessment. If successful, this work will form the foundation of a new research program that will link the field of pain research with the field of social neuroscience, and forge new insights on the critical problem of health disparities in pain. Study population We will accrue up to 700 total healthy volunteers to target 240 completers Design Our overall aim is to understand how social factors influence the assessment and management of pain, and to gain insight into psychosocial processes that may underlie health disparities in pain. We propose a series of studies designed to test these links. First, we will measure pain perception and physiological responses to painful stimuli in a diverse group of individuals to test for sociocultural and biological influences on pain and pain-related responses. In subsequent studies, new participants ("perceivers") will view images of these initial participants ("targets") and will provide estimates of 'targets' pain experience. We will measure a) whether perceivers can accurately estimate 'targets' pain experience; b) whether accuracy differs as a function of similarity between target and perceiver (ingroup vs outgroup); and c) whether individuals can improve accuracy through feedback. Outcome measures Primary outcome measures for all experiments will be decisions about pain (experienced by self or other) measured with visual analogue scales, reaction time, and/or categorical judgments (pain/no pain). We will also measure physiological responses (e.g., facial muscle response, skin conductance, pupil dilation) and brain responses using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) as secondary outcome measures. We will test whether pain and pain-related responses varies as a function of sociocultural/demographic factors (e.g. race, ethnicity, sex) and whether accuracy in assessing others' pain is influenced by group similarity (i.e. ingroup vs. outgroup) and training (e.g. performance-related feedback).... Read Less

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

Background: The vagus nerve runs from the brain to many organs. Stimulating it can affect the experience of pain. The nerve can be stimulated on the surface of the left ear. Researchers want to study how this stimulation affects the perception of pain. They also want to study how mood affects the experience of pain. Objective: To study the effects of mood and vagus nerve stimulation on the experience of pain. Eligibility: Healthy people ages 18 and older who are fluent in English Design: Participants will be pre-screened with a 15-minute phone call. Participants will have three 2-hour visits. At the screening visit, participants will be screened with: Medical and psychiatric history Physical and psychological exams Questionnaires about physical and psychiatric health and mood Urine tests A heat probe on the forearm. The temperature will be increased until it is painful but tolerable. Participants will have 2 testing sessions within 7 days. Before the testing, they cannot do the following: Eat, use nicotine, or exercise for at least 2 hours Drink alcohol for 24 hours Take certain medicines for 3 days Testing includes: Urine drug screening Left ear stimulation: In one session, the vagus nerve will be stimulated. In the other, an area of the ear away from the vagus nerve will be stimulated. This will be done with mild electric shocks that cause a tingling, pricking, or itchy feeling. Heat applied to the forearm until it is painful but tolerable Completing several forms on a computer or on paper about how they are feeling Monitors on the chest and a finger clip to monitor heart, breathing, and blood pressure Read Less

This study will examine the safety of giving the experimental drug, resiniferatoxin (RTX), to treat severe pain in patients with advanced cancer. RTX is a chemical extracted from a cactus-like plant. It is similar to capsaicin, the active ingredient in hot pepper. RTX has relieved pain and reduced the need for pain medication in several animal experiments. It works by destroying nerves that transmit pain information. People at least 18 years of age with severe pain from advanced cancer at or below the level of the chest that cannot be controlled with standard treatments may be eligible for this study. Participants undergo the following procedures: Pretreatment Visit Before beginning treatment with RTX, patients give a medical history and undergo a physical examination that includes: * Electrocardiogram (EKG) * Blood draw * Urinalysis * Neurological examinations * Peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) * Eye examination * MRI * Urology assessment * Pregnancy test, when appropriate * Questionnaires to collect information on health, personality, mood, pain levels and symptoms. 2-Day Hospitalization Patients are hospitalized for 2 days for RTX injection and monitoring, as follows: * RTX injection: RTX is injected in the operating room under general anesthesia. It is given through a catheter placed in the patient s spine. The catheter is also used to obtain samples of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) the clear fluid that bathes the spinal cord. The fluid is examined to assess drug effects and side effects, chemical changes in the content of the CSF associated with RTX, and how RTX is handled by the body. * Post-injection monitoring, including: * Surveys about symptoms such as pain or weakness * Neurological examinations * Blood and CSF sampling * EKG * AEs Outpatient followup * Vitals * Blood draw, Urinalysis, neurological and sensory testing, EKG on days 7, 14 and 30 after the injection * MRI scans of the head and back, Urology assessment and PEFR on day 15 after the injection * Eye examination * Follow-up phone calls monthly for 6 months 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

VETERANS ONLY. Chronic low back pain (cLBP) is common. Most Americans will have at least one episode of low back pain in their lifetimes. Approximately 50% of all US Veterans have chronic pain, and CLBP is the most common type of pain in this population. This study will use a sequential randomized, pragmatic, 2-step comparative effectiveness study design. The main goal is to identify the best approach for treating cLBP using commonly recommended non-surgical and non-pharmacological options. The first step compares continued care and active monitoring (CCAM) to internet-based pain self-management (Pain EASE) and an enhanced physical therapy intervention that combines Pain EASE with tailored exercise and physical activity. Patients who do not have a significant decrease in pain interference (a functional outcome) in Step 1 and those desiring additional treatment will be randomized in Step 2 to yoga, spinal manipulation therapy (SMT), or therapist-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Participants proceeding to randomization in Step 2 will be allowed to exclude up to one of the three Step 2 treatments based on their preferences. The investigators' primary hypothesis for the first treatment step is that an enhanced physical therapy intervention that combines pain self-management education with a tailored exercise program will reduce pain interference greater than internet-based pain self-management alone or CCAM in Veterans with cLBP. The primary outcome is change in pain interference at 3 months, measured using the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) pain interference subscale. Study participants will be followed for one year after initiation of their final study treatments to assess the durability of treatment effects. The study plans to randomize 2529 patients across 20 centers. Read Less

The purpose of this study is to evaluate patient-reported post-operative pain scores following minimally invasive tubal sterilization procedures to determine if a multimodal, non-opioid pain control regimen is non-inferior to a pain control regimen including opioids. The study team hypothesizes that with extensive counseling on pain management, multimodal medication use, and expectation with non-opioid methods can effectively eliminate the need for opioid prescriptions after laparoscopic salpingectomy. Read Less

The purpose of this randomized pragmatic trial is to assess the effect of monthly booster contacts on long-term Brief Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Chronic Pain (BCBT-CP) pain outcomes compared to BCBT-CP without a booster in 716 Military Health Systems (MHS) beneficiaries referred to a Behavioral Health Consultant (BHC) for pain management using BCBT-CP. Patients will be randomly assigned to receive either standard BCBT-CP (working with a BHC in the medical home clinic) or standard BCBT-CP with adjunctive monthly booster contacts. Additionally, patient participants and clinic providers and staff will be offered the opportunity to participate in separate post-treatment Focus Groups using a semi-structured interview format designed to assess the usability, ease of use, perceived effectiveness, helpfulness, and barriers to the pain management intervention. Patient participants will be assessed 3-, 6-, 12- and 18-Months following their first appointment for BCBT-CP. Prospective data will be supplemented by a national data pull in collaboration with the Defense Health Agency and the Uniformed Services University Center for Rehabilitation Sciences Research. Pulled data will include a national deidentified dataset of electronic health record data for all individuals treated in the military health system who had access to a Behavioral Health Consultant for the treatment under study in this trial. Read Less

The goal of the ATX101-TKA-004 clinical trial aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of ATX101 1,500 mg in participants undergoing primary unilateral total knee arthroplasty. The study will compare the effectiveness of ATX101 with a saline placebo and bupivacaine, an active comparator. Additionally, it will assess opioid consumption among participants receiving ATX101 versus those given the saline placebo and bupivacaine. The trial will also focus on the safety and tolerability of ATX101 in the participants. Read Less