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Virtual Walking for Neuropathic Pain in Spinal Cord Injury

NCT01884662 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 67

Last updated 2021-08-30

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Spinal cord injury neuropathic pain (SCI-NP) is a common problem, and when severe, is one of the most problematic of secondary conditions that is minimally to modestly responsive to currently available treatments. It is usually described as burning or stabbing, and is located at or below the level at which their sensation changes from normal to impaired; persons with no feeling at all in their legs for example can experience pain in the legs. The purpose of this project is to further investigate the use of a novel visual stimulation treatment; a technique that has shown benefit in other populations with chronic pain secondary to deafferentation. To accomplish this, a novel treatment - virtual reality (VR) walking - will be examined. Should this treatment show benefit, a portable, accessible means of treatment will be available for persons with SCI and for whom transportation to health care providers is often difficult.

Conditions

  • Spinal Cord Injury
  • Neuropathic Pain

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Virtual walking

As in mirror therapy for amputee phantom pain, there is evidence that neuropathic SCI pain responds to images of the person with SCI's legs "walking"; we achieve this via a virtual reality approach where the subject perceives it is his/her legs walking.

BEHAVIORAL

Wheeling tape

This control condition mirrors the experimental condition in all respects except it shows still legs in a wheelchair traversing the same path as the virtual walking condition

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • University of Alabama at Birmingham

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • John S Richards, PhD · University of Alabama at Birmingham

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
19 Years
Max Age
65 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2012-09-30
Primary Completion
2021-04-30
Completion
2021-06-30

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT01884662 on ClinicalTrials.gov