Phototherapy in Persons With Multiple Sclerosis

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Status and phase: Unknown; Phase 1

Conditions: Multiple Sclerosis

Treatments: Device: Phototherapy

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02365259

15178

Details and patient eligibility

About

The current study examines the effect of phototherapy equipped with Narrow Band UVB lamps on vitamin D production in persons with MS.

Full description

Participants will be exposed to phototherapy according to the 2014 Guidelines issued by the American Academy of Dermatology 3 days per week over an 8-week period.

Enrollment: 20 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 18 to 64 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Female with multiple sclerosis

Exclusion criteria

• Inability to stand still in a stabilized fashion without risk of falling for up to 6 minutes
• Known medical history of calcium disorder or knowledge of high calcium levels
• Known medical history of hyper-parathyroidism
• Current supplementation with oral vitamin D
• Known allergy to vitamin D
• History of cancer of any type including but not limited to skin cancer
• Obesity defined as BMI > 30
• Known history of fat malabsorption conditions (i.e., steatorrhea)
• Current use of anti-epileptic medication
• Current use of glucocorticoids
• Fitzpatrick skin types I and VI using the Fitzpatrick skin type analysis
• Recent use of tanning facilities

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Triple Blind

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20 participants in 2 patient groups, including a placebo group

Phototherapy

Experimental group

Description:

This arm involves exposure to a UVB phototherapy device 3 times per week over 8 weeks.

Treatment:

Device: Phototherapy

Shame phototherapy

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

This arm is identical with experimental arm, except that participants will be exposed to non-UVB florescent light.

Treatment:

Device: Phototherapy