Utility of Multisensory Body-Representation in Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) With Pain

University of Miami

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Spinal Cord Injuries; Neuropathic Pain

Treatments: Other: tDCS and bodily illusions

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06010251

20230447

SC220073 (Other Grant/Funding Number)

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of bodily illusions combined with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on neuropathic pain symptoms and sensory functions in participants with spinal cord injury (SCI) and neuropathic pain.

Enrollment: 30 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 70 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

The study will be open to people of any ethnicity, racial background, and gender.

Inclusion criteria:

SCI with Pain:

1. Men or women
2. fluent in English
3. 18-70 years of age who have: (3a) Complete and incomplete SCI, level of injury (above L1); (3b) Persistent neuropathic pain started after the injury for a minimum of three months prior to entering the study that is at least moderate in severity, defined as ≥ 4 on a Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) ranging 0 to 10.

Exclusion criteria:

Participants will be excluded if they have:

1. Major psychiatric disease/disorder (self-reported);
2. a significant neurological trauma (self-reported) other than SCI;
3. a recent (one-year) history of alcohol or drug abuse assessed by the Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST-10)
4. history of visual and hearing loss not corrected
5. history of epilepsy or seizures
6. any metal implants in the head, or implanted devices such as cochlea implants or cardiac pacemakers.

We will not include any special population like:

Adults unable to consent Individuals who are not yet adults (infants, children, teenagers) Pregnant women Prisoners

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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30 participants in 1 patient group

SCI with pain

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will undergo 2-4 weeks of combined intervention including transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and bodily illusions (10 sessions total).

Treatment:

Other: tDCS and bodily illusions