Predicting Central Pain Among People With a Spinal Cord Injury by Evaluating Mechanisms Regulating Pain and Efficacy Testing of the TENS Apparatus

Brief summary (from the registry)

People with a Spinal Cord Injury can develop chronic pain within months of the injury. Up to 80% of the patients will develop chronic pain called "central pain" and describe the pain as: burning, stabbing, or "like electricity." Central pain mechanism is unknown and therefore treatment is currently not effective. It is hypothesized that chronic pain is associated with impaired function of the systems regulating pain, however, this hypothesis has not been tested among Spinal Cord Injury patients. Presence of such a connection, between the regulating system dysfunction and central pain, will help both predicting the risk of central pain and develop a treatment. The current research objective is to make several sensory measurements which will measure the functioning mechanisms of regulation and control of the pain. These measurements are accepted throughout the world and are based on psychophysical assessment of patients. these Measurements are designed to assess whether Spinal Cord Injury chronic central pain patients demonstrate impairment in the regulation of pain. Finding such a link between central pain and impaired regulation could shed light on the mechanism of central pain. In addition, these measurements are designed to assess whether fresh spinal cord injury patients that have not yet developed central pain demonstrate impairment in the regulation of pain immediately after the injury. By repeated assessments of pain regulation capabilities, which will be made to fresh Spinal Cord Injury patients during the first months of injury, and comparing the results of these measurements between those who will develop center pain and those who will not, we could identify indicators for predicting the risk of central pain. Another goal of the study is to investigate the efficacy of central pain treatment, using a TENS, when the parameters of the TENS treatment will be built according to the level of functioning of the regulating systems of the individual.

Study details

Official title

Predicting Central Pain Among People With a Spinal Cord Injury by Evaluating Mechanisms Regulating Pain and Efficacy Testing of the TENS Apparatus

Conditions

• Pain
• Healthy

Interventions

• Device: Thermal stimulation
• Device: Mechanical stimulation
• Device: Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulator (TENS)

Sponsor

Sheba Medical Center

Start date

2012-12

Primary completion

2019-08

Sex

All

Age range

from 18 Years to 70 Years

Healthy volunteers

true

Results posted

No results posted in this snapshot

Countries

Israel

Total sites listed

1

Eligibility criteria