Chronic Pain
Conditions
Brief summary
Chronic pain patients with implanted dorsal root ganglion stimulators will be randomized to receive transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to the motor cortex, magneto-encephalographically (MEG) localized stimulation or sham stimulation to identify therapeutic efficacy of paired central and peripheral neuromodulation.
Interventions
DEVICETranscranial direct current stimulation
tDCS produces hyper/hypopolarizing potentials in the cortex underlying the scalp electrodes and can increase/decrease the excitability of targeted brain regions.
Sponsors
University of Oxford
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
CROSSOVER
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE (Subject)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* Patients who are willing and able to give consent to the study. * Male or Female, aged 18 years or above with diagnoses of chronic pain. * Treatment includes Spinal Cord Stimulation, Dorsal Root Ganglion stimulation, or peripheral analgesic stimulation.
Exclusion criteria
* Patients who do not wish to be in the study. * Patients with metallic intracranial implants. * Patients with extreme language barrier that cannot understand the purpose of the study despite the use of an interpreter
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change in pain scores: 21-point pain scale rating | Immediately after 30 minutes of transcranial direct current stimulation | 21-point pain scale rating |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Changes in EEG recordings | Immediately after 30 minutes of transcranial direct current stimulation | Changes in electrical fields of the cortex |
| Changes in Facial Expression Recognition Performance | Immediately after 30 minutes of transcranial direct current stimulation | An emotional categorisation task to identify anti-depressant effects |
Countries
United Kingdom
Outcome results
None listed