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Tai Chi Intervention and Brain Imaging Study Among Fibromyalgia Patients and Healthy Controls

CompletedNot applicableNCT02407665
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)

This exploratory study proposal is the first pilot brain imaging study to determine if Tai Chi can modulate brain resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) and brain morphometry among fibromyalgia (FM) patients and healthy controls.

Study details

Official title
A Pilot fMRI Study of Fibromyalgia: Tai Chi Intervention
Interventions
Sponsor
Tufts Medical Center
Collaborators
Massachusetts General Hospital
Start date
2015-03
Primary completion
2015-12
Sex
All
Age range
from 21 Years
Healthy volunteers
true
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: * Age 21 years or older. * Fulfills the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 1990 classification criteria for FM: (1) a history of widespread musculoskeletal pain on the right and left sides of the body as well as above and below the waist for a minimum duration of 3 months, and (2) pain in 11 or more of 18 specific tender points with moderate or greater tenderness reported upon digital palpation.22 * Fulfills the ACR 2010 diagnostic criteria for FM: (WPI ≥7 AND SS ≥5) OR (WPI 3-6 AND SS ≥9) and does not have a disorder that would otherwise explain the pain23 * Willing to complete a 12-week, twice-a-week Tai Chi exercise program. * Willing to abstain from Aerobic Exercise or other new formalized exercise programs until completion of the study. * Willing to undergo MRI at baseline and follow-up. Exclusion Criteria: * Prior experience with Tai Chi or other similar types of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the past 1 year such as Qi gong and yoga since these share some of the principles of Tai Chi. * Dementia, neurological disease, cancer, cardiovascular disease, pulmonary disease, metabolic disease, renal disease, liver disease, or other serious medical conditions limiting ability to participate in the Tai Chi programs, as determined by the study physicians. * Any other diagnosed medical condition known to contribute to FM symptomatology, such as thyroid disease, inflammatory arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosis, rheumatoid arthritis, myositis, vasculitis or Sjogren's syndrome. * Inability to pass the Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire (PAR-Q) * Inability to pass the Mini-Mental Status examination (with a score below 24)24 Enrollment in any other clinical trial within the last 30 days * Plan to permanently relocate from the region during the trial period * Presence of any contraindications to fMRI scanning. Including but not limited to: cardiac pacemaker, metal implants, fear of closed spaces, pregnancy, weight \>300 lbs * Non-English Speaking.

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov (US National Library of Medicine), snapshot October 2026. Check the registry for current recruiting status. Record: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT02407665