Virtual Walking to Reduce Chronic Neuropathic Pain in Subjects With SCI
Recruiting now · Not applicable · Has a placebo group
Conditions studied: Spinal Cord Injuries (SCI), Neuropathic Pain Due to Spinal Cord Injury
In brief
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.
Key facts
- Study ID
- NCT07165353
- Run by
- Swiss Paraplegic Research, Nottwil
- People needed
- 40
- Starts
- 2026-01-20
- Expected to finish
- 2027-11-30
- Last updated by the study team
- 2026-01-21
Who can join
Age: 18 and older, up to 75. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.
You may qualify if…
- Sufficient knowledge of German language to understand the instructions, assessments and to fill in questionnaires.
- Age ≥ 18y, ≤ 75y
- Chronic traumatic or non-traumatic SCI (>6 month after SCI) with an SCI severity grade AIS A, B, C or D
- At or below level spinal cord injury neuropathic pain on trunk or lower extremities diagnosed by a neurologist following the ISCIP classification (Bryce et al., 2012) of at least 4/10 intensity on a NRS (Langford et al., 2023)
- Ability to draw with a pen
You may not qualify if…
- - Serious psychiatric disorders, which are accompanied by imminent or current acute harm to oneself or others, or which require inpatient psychiatric treatment for other reasons, or other indications of a foreseeable, seriously harmful effect of participation in the study based on the clinical impression from the psychological screening interview
- Participants with a walking ability more than 5 minutes without walking aids
- Pregnancy (anamnestic) in women of child-bearing age (18-49 years)
- Known epilepsy
- neurological disorders (multiple sclerosis, ALS, Guillan-Barré Syndrome, congenital disorders, polyneuropathy)
Where it is running
- Schweizer Paraplegiker Zentrum Nottwil — Nottwil, Canton of Lucerne, Switzerland (enrolling)
Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov
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