Managing Chronic Tendon Pain by Metformin
TerminatedPhase 1NCT06100822
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 the current exploratory clinical trial is to determine the effect of oral ingestion of metformin (OIM) in non-diabetic patients with chronic Achilles tendon pain. The trial has two aims; 1) to assess the effects of OIM treatment on tendon pain, and 2) to determine the effects of OIM capsules on tendon healing and repair. Twenty participants will be treated with metformin capsules for 16 weeks combined with a home exercise program. A comparison group of 20 participants will be treated with placebo tablets along with home exercise program.
Study details
- Official title
- Managing Chronic Tendon Pain by Repurposing Metformin
- Conditions
- Tendinopathy
- Chronic Pain
- Achilles Tendinopathy
- Interventions
- Drug: Metformin
- Drug: Placebo
- Sponsor
- James Wang
- Collaborators
- United States Department of Defense
- Organization
- University of Pittsburgh
- Start date
- 2024-05-24
- Primary completion
- 2026-08-24
- Sex
- All
- Age range
- from 18 Years to 50 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: * Willing and able to provide informed consent for participation * Clinical diagnosis of Achilles tendinopathy * Pain disability index score of between 20 - 70 points (0-100 scale VISA-A) * Sonopalpation tenderness with tendon thickening and/or loss of fibrillary architecture. * Ability to read, speak, and understand English Exclusion Criteria: * Any intervention (corticosteroids or other orthobiologic intervention as injection) to targeted tissue within the last 6 months. * Previous Achilles tendon surgery. * Known platelet abnormality or hematological disorder. * Presence of other conditions that might affect the functional scale of the indexed limb. * Unwillingness to be randomized. * Body Mass Index (BMI) greater than 30. * Occult tear in the indexed tendon. * Systemic inflammatory disease. * Use of fluoroquinolone in the past 6 months. * Subjects must not be pregnant or breastfeeding, or planning to become pregnant or breastfeed during the course of the trial * Chronic kidney disease (eGFR \<60) * Diagnosis of diabetes mellitus or elevated HbA1c at screening (\> 6.5) * Unable to take an oral medication in a non crushable pill form * Taking metformin presently or within the last 6 months * History of allergy to metformin * History of lactic acidosis or elevated lactate at screening (\> 2.2) * Severe Hepatic dysfunction * Currently taking a diabetic medication such as sitagliptin, saxagliptin, linagliptin, alogliptin, sitagliptin with metformin * Currently taking a Carbonic anhydrase inhibitor such as topiramate, zonisamide, acetazolamide, dichlorphenamide, methazolamide * Currently taking cimetidine
Source: ClinicalTrials.gov (US National Library of Medicine), snapshot October 2026. Check the registry for current recruiting status. Record: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06100822