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Complex Regional Pain Syndrome clinical trials at UCSF

3 in progress, 1 open to eligible people

Complex regional pain syndrome is a tough kind of pain that affects one part of the body. At UCSF, we're studying how to use magnets to help people with this pain, which is caused by damage to the nervous system. This pain is common and can make life hard.

Showing trials for
  • Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for Chronic Neuropathic Pain

    open to eligible people ages 18-80

    Chronic neuropathic pain is defined as pain caused by a lesion or disease of the somatosensory nervous system. It is highly prevalent, debilitating, and challenging to treat. Current available treatments have low efficacy, high side effect burden, and are prone to misuse and dependence. Emerging evidence suggests that the transition from acute to chronic neuropathic pain is associated with reorganization of central brain circuits involved in pain processing. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a promising alternative treatment that uses focused magnetic pulses to non-invasively modulate brain activity, a strategy that can potentially circumvent the adverse effects of available treatments for pain. RTMS is FDA-approved for the treatment of major depressive disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and migraine, and has been shown to reduce pain scores when applied to the contralateral motor cortex (M1). However, available studies of rTMS for chronic neuropathic pain typically show variable and often short-lived benefits, and many aspects of optimal treatment remain unknown, including ideal rTMS stimulation parameters, duration of treatment, and relationship to the underlying pain etiology. Here the investigators propose to evaluate the efficacy of high frequency rTMS to M1, the region with most evidence of benefit in chronic neuropathic pain, and to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to identify alternative rTMS targets for participants that do not respond to stimulation at M1. The central aim is to evaluate the pain relieving efficacy of multi-session high-frequency M1 TMS for pain. In secondary exploratory analyses, the investigator propose to investigate patient characteristic that are predictive of responsive to M1 rTMS and identify viable alternative stimulation targets in non-responders to M1 rTMS.

    San Francisco, California

  • Closed-Loop Deep Brain Stimulation for Refractory Chronic Pain

    Sorry, in progress, not accepting new patients

    Chronic pain affects 1 in 4 US adults, and many cases are resistant to almost any treatment. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) holds promise as a new option for patients suffering from treatment-resistant chronic pain, but traditional approaches target only brain regions involved in one aspect of the pain experience and provide continuous 24/7 brain stimulation which may lose effect over time. By developing new technology that targets multiple, complimentary brain regions in an adaptive fashion, the investigators will test a new therapy for chronic pain that has potential for better, more enduring analgesia.

    San Francisco, California

  • TARGET Post-Approval Study

    Sorry, in progress, not accepting new patients

    The purpose of this prospective, multicenter, single arm post-approval study is to demonstrate continued safety of the Axium and Proclaim Neurostimulator System for dorsal root ganglion (DRG) stimulation. The primary endpoint is the 12-month serious adverse event rate for permanent implants.

    San Francisco, California and other locations

Our lead scientists for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome research studies include .

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