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Effectiveness of Exercise Plus Pain Neuroscience Education on Brain Function in Knee Osteoarthritis

Brain Function, Clinical and Psychosocial Outcomes After Neuromuscular Exercise Plus Pain Neuroscience Education Intervention in Patients With Chronic Pain Due to Knee Osteoarthritis. A Randomized Controlled Trial Protocol

Status
Not yet recruiting
Phases
NA
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT06482970
Enrollment
57
Registered
2024-07-01
Start date
2025-03-15
Completion date
2025-12-30
Last updated
2024-07-01

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Knee Osteoarthritis

Keywords

Neuromuscular exercise, Pain neuroscience education, Knee osteoarthritis, Chronic pain, Physical therapy

Brief summary

A three-arm randomized controlled trial will be conducted. Fifty-nine participants with KOA will be recruited in a 1:1:1 ratio. Assessor, and statistician will be blinded to group allocation. One experimental group (n=19) will receive NME plus PNE, the other experimental group (n=19) will receive isolated NME and the control group (n=19) will continue with usual care. The PNE will be adapted to the context of the participants. Outcome measures will be brain activity, pressure pain threshold, pain intensity, disability, fear-avoidance beliefs, self-efficacy, and pain catastrophizing. Outcome measures will be evaluated pre-intervention, immediately post-intervention, and four-month post-intervention. The investigators hypothesize that there will be significant differences in favor of the NME plus PNE intervention group.

Interventions

OTHERNeuromuscular exercise plus pain neuroscience education

The exercises follow neuromuscular principles, which aim to improve sensorimotor control and achieve compensatory functional stability (also called dynamic stability). Pain neuroscience education will take an active, person-centered approach through their own fear-avoidance beliefs.

The exercises follow neuromuscular principles, which aim to improve sensorimotor control and achieve compensatory functional stability (also called dynamic stability).

Sponsors

Universidad Santo Tomas, Chile
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE (Outcomes Assessor)

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
45 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

* women and men at least 45 years old radiologically diagnosed with unilateral or bilateral KOA (Kellgren-Lawrence 1-3 grading scale) * pain duration greater than three months

Exclusion criteria

* Patients who have received physical therapy or other conservative therapy in the previous three months and those who have a history of major knee trauma and surgery in the last six months * cardiac pathology * structural use of psychoactive medications, such as antipsychotics, antidepressants, antiepileptics, and anxiolytics, during the past year * neurological diseases * other musculoskeletal clinical conditions that generate pain

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Brain function (peak frequency)baseline, post-intervention (2 months after admission), follow-up four months after the intervention.An analysis of the peak frequencies (the highest power frequency determined in the average of the windows as the local maximum (greater than its two neighboring windows) of the amplitude in a frequency range of 6-14 Hz will be applied.
Brain function (power spectrum)baseline, post-intervention (2 months after admission), follow-up four months after the intervention.A global analysis of the power spectrum will be carried out, considered as the average of all the electrodes, which represents the synchronization between the neurons to generate the discharges. A topographic power analysis will also be performed for the Delta (0.1 - 4 Hz), theta (4 - 8 Hz), alpha (8 - 13 Hz) and beta (13 - 30 Hz) frequency bands.

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Disabilitybaseline, post-intervention (2 months after admission), follow-up four months after the intervention.Disability will be assessed with the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis (WOMAC) questionnaire. It consists of 24 questions divided into 3 domains: pain, stiffness and physical function with 5, 2 and 17 questions, respectively. Each question is scored on a Likert scale of 0-4, corresponding to the intensity levels of none, slight, moderate, severe and extreme pain. A higher WOMAC score indicates worse health status.
Fear-avoidance beliefsbaseline, post-intervention (2 months after admission), follow-up four months after the intervention.Fear-avoidance beliefswill be evaluated with the Fear Avoidance Beliefs Questionnaire (FABQ). This questionnaire consists of 2 subscales with 16 items in total 70. It is rated on a 7-point Likert scale (0=strongly disagree to 6=strongly agree).
Pain pressure-thresholdbaseline, post-intervention (2 months after admission), follow-up four months after the intervention.A digital algometer (WAGNER FDX10) will be used to measure pressure pain sensitivity. The average of three measurements will be used. Patients will be evaluated lying supine in a comfortable position according to the area to be evaluated. It will be performed at two test sites on the affected knee(s) (3 cm medial and lateral to the midpoint of the medial and lateral edge of the patella, respectively) and will also be applied to a distant site on the ipsilateral carpal extensor radialis longus (5 cm distal to the lateral epicondyle).
Pain Catastrophizingbaseline, post-intervention (2 months after admission), follow-up four months after the intervention.Pain catastrophizing will be assessed using the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS) questionnaire. It consists of 3 subscales (rumination, magnification and helplessness) with 13 questions in total, which are scored on a Likert scale from 0 (mild symptoms) to 4 (worst symptoms) points. The higher the score, the more pain catastrophizing the patient presents.
Self-efficacybaseline, post-intervention (2 months after admission), follow-up four months after the intervention.Self-efficacy will be evaluated with the Pain Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (PSEQ) will be used. It consists of 10 items rated on a 7-point Likert scale from 0 (not at all confident) to 6 (very confident)
Pain intensitybaseline, post-intervention (2 months after admission), follow-up four months after the intervention.The pain intensity will be measured with the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), which consists of a 10 cm straight line with two labels, at one end no pain and at the other the worst possible pain where the patient will draw a vertical mark indicating your pain level. The pain intensity at rest and during activity in the last 7 days will be considered.

Contacts

Primary ContactJoaquín I Salazar, MSc
jsalazar13@santotomas.cl+569 73785287

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026