Brain Injuries, Traumatic, Concussion, Brain, Headache, Headaches Chronic, Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, Post-Traumatic Headache, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
Conditions
Brief summary
The objective of this study is to investigate the treatment effect of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in patients with a history of both persistent post-traumatic headache and post-concussion symptoms. In this double-blind, sham-controlled, concealed allocation, randomized clinical trial, 20 patients aged 18-65 yrs will be recruited from the Calgary Brain Injury Program (CBIP) and the Calgary Headache Assessment and Management Program (CHAMP) / Calgary Chronic Pain Centre, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Patients will engage in a two-week rTMS treatment protocol (10 treatments) and will be followed for 6 months after therapy.
Detailed description
Demographic information will be collected two weeks prior to starting the study including age, sex, education, headache history, concussion history, past medical history, medication use, and family medical history. Headache history will be collected including frequency, severity, medication-use, type of headache, associated symptoms (i.e. neck pain, photophobia, phonophobia, nausea, vomiting) and headache triggers. Baseline questionnaires will be completed including headache intensity scale - 6 (HIT-6), Rivermead PPCS questionnaire, British Columbia post-concussion symptom inventory (BC-PSI), Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA), quality of life after brain injury questionnaire (QOLIBRI), patient health questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), generalized anxiety disorder scale-7 (GADS-7) and the post traumatic stress disorder checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5). Patients will keep a two-week baseline headache diary before treatment, 2 weeks during treatment, 2 weeks following rTMS, and for 2 weeks at the 1, 3, and 6 month follow up assessments (total of 12 weeks). Patients will be reassessed at the completion of their rTMS treatment (day 14), and at 1, 3, and 6 months post-treatment. The questionnaires including: HIT-6, Rivermead PPCS questionnaire, PC-PSI, QOLIBRI, PHQ-9 and GAD-7 will be completed at all follow up visits.
Interventions
DEVICErTMS - Real Air Film Coil
70% resting motor threshold amplitude; Frequency 10 Hz; 10 trains of 60 pulses/train (total of 600 pulses); Inter-train interval 45s.
DEVICErTMS - Sham Coil
A sham coil will be applied to the scalp after the resting motor threshold is determined. Patients will be able to hear the sound and feel the vibration of sham coil, but will not experience any effective stimulation.
Sponsors
Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary
University of Calgary
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
QUADRUPLE (Subject, Caregiver, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
Masking description
Participants will be randomized with a random number generator to receive either sham or rTMS. Allocation will be concealed through the use of sequentially numbered, sealed, opaque envelopes.
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
16 Years to 65 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Diagnosis of a persistent headache attributed to traumatic injury to the head based on the ICHD-3 criteria * Diagnosis of persistent post-concussion symptoms based on the ICD-10 criteria * mTBI occurrence from 3 months to 5 years from study start date
Exclusion criteria
* Prior history of TMS therapy * TMS-related contraindications (pacemaker, metallic implant) * History of chronic headache (\>15 days/month for 3 months) or migraine prior to most recent trauma * Other medical conditions such as: structural brain disease, previous seizure, psychotic disorders (schizophrenia, bipolar disorder), liver or kidney disease, malignancy, uncontrolled hypertension or diabetes, and pregnancy
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change in headache severity from baseline to 1 month post-treatment. | Repeated measures: Baseline (0-2 weeks),1 month (6-8 weeks) | Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS): a tool to assess severity of pain, which is graded from 0-10 (11 points) with 0 defined as no pain and 10 as worst possible pain. |
| Change in headache frequency from baseline to 1 month post-treatment. | Repeated measures: Baseline (0-2 weeks),1 month (6-8 weeks) | Number of headaches/2 weeks |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Function | Repeated measures: Pre-treatment (0-2 weeks), During Treatment (2-4 weeks), Post-treatment (4-6 weeks), 1 Month (6-8 weeks), 3 Months (10-12 weeks), 6 Months (22-24 weeks) | Headache Impact Test (HIT-6): a global measure of headache impact. Addresses the 6 categories of headache impact including social, role, and cognitive functioning, vitality, psychological distress, and severity of headache pain. Each question is scored on a 5 point scale: never, rarely, sometimes, very often, and always. Total score can range from 36-78, with higher total score indicating greater impact. |
| Depression | Repeated measures: Pre-treatment (0-2 weeks), During Treatment (2-4 weeks), Post-treatment (4-6 weeks), 1 Month (6-8 weeks), 3 Months (10-12 weeks), 6 Months (22-24 weeks) | Patient Health Questionnaire - 9 (PHQ-9): a 9 item tool used to assess the presence and severity of depressive symptoms. Each item is rated based on the frequency of occurrence in the past two weeks and is graded on a 0-3 scale (0=not at all, 1= several days, 3= nearly every day). Finally, one question rates how difficult problems have made completing tasks at home, doing work, and getting along with people. This is graded on a 4 point scale from not difficult at all to extremely difficult. Total score is calculated out of 27, with a values indicating severity of depression (i.e. 0-4= none to mild, 5-9 = mild, 10-14 = moderate, 15-19 = moderately severe, and 20-27 = very severe). |
| Anxiety | Repeated measures: Pre-treatment (0-2 weeks), During Treatment (2-4 weeks), Post-treatment (4-6 weeks), 1 Month (6-8 weeks), 3 Months (10-12 weeks), 6 Months (22-24 weeks) | Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7): a 7-item tool where similar to the PHQ-9, each item is rated on frequency over a 2 week period based on a 0-3 scale (0=not at all, 1= several days, 3= nearly every day). Total score GAD-7 total score ranges from 0 to 21, with scores indicating severity of anxiety (i.e. 0-5= mild, 6-10 = moderate, 11-15 = moderately severe, 16-21 = very severe). |
| Headache severity | Repeated measures: Pre-treatment (0-2 weeks), During Treatment (2-4 weeks), Post-treatment (4-6 weeks), 1 Month (6-8 weeks), 3 Months (10-12 weeks), 6 Months (22-24 weeks) | Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS): a tool to assess severity of pain, which is graded from 0-10 (11 points) with 0 defined as no pain and 10 as worst possible pain. |
| Cognition | Repeated measures: Pre-treatment (0-2 weeks), During Treatment (2-4 weeks), Post-treatment (4-6 weeks), 1 Month (6-8 weeks), 3 Months (10-12 weeks), 6 Months (22-24 weeks) | Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA):a paper and pencil global cognitive assessment tool which measures 7 neurocognitive domains including visuospatial/executive function, naming, memory, attention, language, abstraction and orientation. It is composed of 16 items and scored out of 30 points. |
| Quality of Life (QoL): QOLIBRI | Repeated measures: Pre-treatment (0-2 weeks), During Treatment (2-4 weeks), Post-treatment (4-6 weeks), 1 Month (6-8 weeks), 3 Months (10-12 weeks), 6 Months (22-24 weeks) | The QOLIBRI is a health-related quality of life instrument developed specifically for patients who have experienced a traumatic brain injury. It has 6 subscales and a total of 37 items. The tool is divided into two sections. The first addresses satisfaction with health related quality of life, characterized by cognition, self, autonomy in daily life, and social aspects. These are reported on a 1-5 scale with 1 defined as not at all satisfied and 5 as very satisfied. The second section is related to feeing bothered by emotions and physical problems. They are again scored from 1-5, however 1 is defined as very bothered and 5 as not bothered at all. The score from all subscales are totaled, and then divided by the number of responses. This gives a mean score, which can range from 1-5. Next, 1 is subtracted from the mean and then multiplied by 25 to produce a score on the 0-100 scale (0=worst possible quality of life, 100= best possible quality of life). |
| Post-concussion Symptoms | Repeated measures: Pre-treatment (0-2 weeks), During Treatment (2-4 weeks), Post-treatment (4-6 weeks), 1 Month (6-8 weeks), 3 Months (10-12 weeks), 6 Months (22-24 weeks) | Rivermead Post-concussion Symptoms Questionnaire (RPQ): an instrument developed to assess the frequency and severity of 16 common post-concussion symptoms. On this paper and pencil tool, patients rate the extent to which their symptoms (compared to their pre-injury levels) have become more problematic over the past 24 hours using a rating scale from 0-4 (0=not experienced, 1=no more of a problem, 2=mild problem, 3=moderate problem, 4=severe problem). A total symptom score is calculated out of 64. |
| Post-traumatic Stress Disorder | Repeated measures: Pre-treatment (0-2 weeks), During Treatment (2-4 weeks), Post-treatment (4-6 weeks), 1 Month (6-8 weeks), 3 Months (10-12 weeks), 6 Months (22-24 weeks) | PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5): is a paper and pencil self-report measure, which rates the severity of PTSD symptoms over the past month. It is composed of 4 subscales, and is a total of 20 items long. Each item corresponds to the 20 criteria for PTSD defined in the DSM-5. |
| Headache frequency | Repeated measures: Pre-treatment (0-2 weeks), During Treatment (2-4 weeks), Post-treatment (4-6 weeks), 1 Month (6-8 weeks), 3 Months (10-12 weeks), 6 Months (22-24 weeks) | Number of headaches/2 weeks |
Countries
Canada
Outcome results
None listed