Effect of Antidepressants on Back Pain
CompletedPhase 2NCT00018200
View the official record on ClinicalTrials.gov Recruiting status changes often. Contact the study team listed on ClinicalTrials.gov, and talk to your doctor before joining a study.
This study has no listed site in Canada in this snapshot. It is included as part of the worldwide chronic pain corpus.
Brief summary (from the registry)
The purpose of this study is to determine whether different types of antidepressant medicines relieve back pain that has lasted at least six months on a daily basis. Study participants will be assigned to treatment with either a antidepressant acting on the serotonin system in the brain (fluoxetine), one acting on the noradrenaline system (desipramine, or to a control medication not expected to relieve pain (benztropine). Each participant will be seen at least nine times during their 12 weeks on medication. This is a phase 2/3, outpatient study.
Study details
- Official title
- Efficacy of Antidepressants in Chronic Back Pain
- Interventions
- Drug: Desipramine
- Drug: Fluoxetine
- Drug: Benztropine
- Sponsor
- US Department of Veterans Affairs
- Organization
- VA Office of Research and Development
- Start date
- 1999-04
- Primary completion
- 2003-12
- Sex
- All
- Age range
- from 21 Years to 65 Years
- Results posted
- No results posted in this snapshot
- Countries
- United States
- Total sites listed
- 1
Eligibility criteria
Show eligibility criteria (verbatim from the registry)
Inclusion Criteria: * Chronic back pain (pain on a daily basis for six months or longer) * Age 18-65 * No major medical illness Exclusion Criteria: * medical contraindication to tricyclic antidepressants * recent alcohol or substance use disorder * bipolar disorder
Source: ClinicalTrials.gov (US National Library of Medicine), snapshot October 2026. Check the registry for current recruiting status. Record: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT00018200