MedTrace Logo

Virtual Walking to Reduce Chronic Neuropathic Pain in Subjects With SCI

NCT07165353 · Status: RECRUITING · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 40

Last updated 2026-01-21

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

About 70% of people with a spinal cord injury in Switzerland have chronic pain that lasts more than 3 to 6 months. This pain can be caused by muscle or joint problems, or by nerve damage (neuropathic pain). Neuropathic pain is often hard to treat, and current treatments may cause side effects or not work well.

This study will test whether virtual walking from different visual perspectives can reduce chronic neuropathic pain and improve quality of life after spinal cord injury. We will also compare which perspective works best.

To better understand how the training works, we will use two tests-quantitative sensory testing (QST) and contact heat-evoked potentials (CHEPs)-to measure changes in the pain and nerve systems.

Conditions

  • Spinal Cord Injuries (SCI)
  • Neuropathic Pain Due to Spinal Cord Injury

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Virtual Walking

This virtual walking therapy uses a life-sized video avatar of the participant walking through a forest environment. A green screen setup combines a live video of the participant's upper body with pre-recorded walking legs, creating a full-body walking illusion. The participant is seated in a modified wheelchair that tilts 2° to each side to mimic pelvic movement during walking. This approach differs from the sham condition (Group 2), which displays only the moving forest without an avatar or wheelchair tilt, and from the standard care group (Group 3), which receives no virtual walking therapy.

BEHAVIORAL

Sham Virtual Walking

Participants view a moving forest environment on a large projection screen for 10 sessions over 2 weeks (each up to 20 minutes). No avatar of the participant is displayed, and the wheelchair tilt function is disabled. This differs from the experimental intervention (Group 1), which includes a life-sized walking avatar and wheelchair tilt to mimic pelvic movement, and from the standard care group (Group 3), which receives no virtual walking therapy.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Swiss Paraplegic Research, Nottwil

    lead NETWORK

Principal Investigators

  • Gunther Landmann, KD Dr. med. · Schweizer Paraplegiker Zentrum Nottwil

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

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

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2026-01-20
Primary Completion
2027-11-30
Completion
2027-11-30

Countries

  • Switzerland

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 NCT07165353 on ClinicalTrials.gov