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hBET for Pain and Sleep Feasibility

NCT04176861 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 28

Last updated 2023-05-17

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Long-term pain affects one-third of the United Kingdom population and can be very disabling. People experiencing long-term pain often suffer from disturbed sleep because of their pain symptoms, and disturbed sleep can then make their pain symptoms worse. Managing long-term pain is also very costly to the National Health Service. The most common treatment is prescribed medicines, but these do not always work and can have serious side-effects for some patients.

The investigators have been developing an alternative approach for treating long-term pain. This approach uses simple non-invasive tools to promote some kinds of brain activity over others. It involves patients using headphones to listen to some specific sounds, or a headset with lights flashing at particular frequencies. The studies undertaken so far seem to show that doing this can change how the brain responds to pain. It potentially offers an inexpensive yet effective way of reducing pain and improving sleep for patients with long-term pain. There are a few small studies that support this approach and more work is needed. The next step is to find out whether these tools can be reliably used in home settings, how people feel about using this approach, and to gather information to design a larger trial of this technology.

Therefore the aim of this study is to test the suitability and acceptability of these home-based tools with individuals with long-term pain. Up to 30 participants with long-term pain and pain-related sleep disturbance will use the tools for at least 20 minutes at bed time every day for 4 weeks. The investigators will interview them to ask about their experiences of using the tools, and their feedback and suggestions on how the approach should be developed. The investigators will measure changes in the nature of participants' pain, sleep, fatigue and mood.

These findings will inform the planning and design of a future much larger study to test this technology. The investigators will make sure that findings from this study are shared widely within the National Health Service and beyond among patient groups, professionals, charities, specialist centres and commissioners.

Conditions

  • Pain, Chronic
  • Sleep Disturbance

Interventions

DEVICE

home-based Brainwave Entrainment Technology

Smartphone app-based brainwave entrainment programme using audio stimulation via binaural beats or visual stimulation via flickering lights

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • University of Leeds

    collaborator OTHER

  • University of Manchester

    lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation
NA
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Model
SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Max Age
80 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2020-01-20
Primary Completion
2021-12-31
Completion
2021-12-31

Countries

  • United Kingdom

Study Locations

More Related Trials

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 NCT04176861 on ClinicalTrials.gov