NCT03634670

The Influence of Interdisciplinary Multimodal Pain Therapy on Cerebral Connectivity in Chronic Pain Patients

Completed Last updated 8 October 2020

What this trial tests

trial testing Interdisciplinary multimodal pain therapy (IMPT) in Chronic Pain, Interdisciplinary Multimodal Pain Therapy, Electroencephalography, Functional Connectivity in 41 participants. Completed in 30 June 2020.

Timeline

9 January 2018

Primary endpoint
30 June 2020

30 June 2020

Quick facts

Lead sponsor	Technical University of Munich
Status	Completed
Study type	OBSERVATIONAL
Enrollment	41
Start date	9 January 2018
Primary completion	30 June 2020
Estimated completion	30 June 2020
Sites	1 location across Germany

Drugs / interventions tested

• Interdisciplinary multimodal pain therapy (IMPT)

Conditions studied

• Chronic Pain, Interdisciplinary Multimodal Pain Therapy, Electroencephalography, Functional Connectivity — all drugs for Chronic Pain, Interdisciplinary Multimodal Pain Therapy, Electroencephalography, Functional Connectivity →

Sponsor

Technical University of Munich

Who can join

18 and older, any sex, with Chronic Pain, Interdisciplinary Multimodal Pain Therapy, Electroencephalography, Functional Connectivity. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.

Sponsor's own description

Due to its high prevalence and the substantial individual and socio-economic burden chronic pain is a huge challenge for patients, physicians and the society. Using neuroimaging structural and functional alterations have been described in the brain of patients suffering from chronic pain (Apkarian, Hashmi et al. 2011, Baliki and Apkarian 2015). However, reproducibility and functional significance of these changes are only incompletely understood. For example it remains unclear, if these changes covariate with clinical parameters and if they can be influenced or reversed by appropriate therapy. Some of the structural and functional brain changes in chronic pain patients have been shown to be reversible using magnetic resonance imaging after successful interventional pain treatment (Seminowicz, Wideman et al. 2011) or cognitive-behavioral therapy (Seminowicz, Shpaner et al. 2013, Shpaner, Kelly et al. 2014). Interdisciplinary multimodal pain therapy (IMPT) as a biopsychosocial treatment approach comprising physiotherapy and psychotherapy in structured programs has been shown to be effective in alleviating chronic pain of different entities including those where interventional therapy options are lacking or have been unsuccessful (Kaiser, Treede et al. 2017). The present study aims to investigate the influence of a structured IMPT approach provided in a day-clinic program of 20 treatment days on the functional brain network structure in chronic pain patients. To this end, a graph-theory based analysis (Bullmore and Sporns 2009) will be applied to electroencephalography (EEG) resting-state data from 30 chronic pain patients before and after IMPT and results will be correlated with behavioral and clinical data. In this observational study chronic pain patients that have been screened for participation in IMPT as part of routine medical care are invited to participate in a baseline visit prior to participation and a follow-up visit 6 months after completion of the program.

This will add to a better understanding of the complex functional brain alterations in chronic pain and might contribute to identify neuronal markers or even predictors for therapeutic responses in multimodal pain treatments. Moreover, the broad availability and easy applicability of EEG-measurements might enable a wide therapeutic application of potential findings in the near future.

Publications & conference data

1 peer-reviewed publication reference this trial (live from Europe PMC):

1. Longitudinal resting-state electroencephalography in patients with chronic pain undergoing interdisciplinary multimodal pain therapy.
   Heitmann H, Gil Ávila C, Nickel MM, Nickel MM, et al · · 2022 · cited 21× · PMID 35050961 · DOI 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000002565