Management of Chronic Pain and PTSD in Gulf War Veterans With tDCS+Prolonged Exposure
CompletedNot applicableNCT04236284
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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)
Gulf War Veterans (a DoD/VA defined service era corresponding to the first Gulf War under operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield 1990-1991), especially those who present with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), are particularly likely to experience chronic pain. Veterans with co-morbid chronic pain and PTSD utilize healthcare services at a higher rate than those with pain or PTSD alone. Unfortunately, there are no integrated treatments for Pain and PTSD. Moreover, non-pharmacological treatments for pain such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy are useful in only about 50% of cases. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) may be an effective treatment for pain, and has been recently used to ameliorate PTSD symptoms. Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PE) is highly effective in treating PTSD symptoms. Therefore, we propose to (a) integrate \& (b) gather feasibility data for home-based tDCS + PE for Pain and PTSD with 15 Gulf War Veterans. The Overall Aim of the present proposal is to integrate, refine and investigate the feasibility (e.g., pilot testing, recruitment, attrition, assessment) of tDCS for treating chronic pain with a best practices evidence-based treatment for PTSD (i.e., Prolonged Exposure: PE) in 15 Gulf War veterans, a group for which both pain (fibromyalgia) and PTSD are particularly problematic.
Study details
- Official title
- Management of Chronic Pain and PTSD in Gulf War Veterans With tDCS+Prolonged Exposure
- Conditions
- Interventions
- Device: Home-based tDCS
- Behavioral: Prolonged Exposure Therapy
- Sponsor
- The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston
- Start date
- 2020-01-15
- Primary completion
- 2021-11-23
- Sex
- All
- Age range
- from 18 Years
- Healthy volunteers
- true
- Results posted
- Yes, on ClinicalTrials.gov
- Countries
- United States
- Total sites listed
- 1
Eligibility criteria
Show eligibility criteria (verbatim from the registry)
Inclusion Criteria: * Presence of chronic non-cancer pain and pain interference, defined as scoring 1 standard deviation above PROMIS normative data on both the 3-item PROMIS Pain Intensity 3a scal and the 8-item PROMIS Pain 8a Interference scale. Symptoms will be required to be of six-month duration or longer * Diagnosis of PTSD assigned on the basis of the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale. Exclusion Criteria: * Having a household member who is already enrolled in the study * Active psychosis or dementia at screening * Suicidal ideation with clear intent * Current substance dependence * current opioid medication for pain.
Source: ClinicalTrials.gov (US National Library of Medicine), snapshot October 2026. Check the registry for current recruiting status. Record: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04236284