Phenotyping Response to Spinal Cord Stimulation in Chronic Low Back Pain
Eligible age
18–80 yrs
Accepts
All genders
Locations
1 state
Healthy volunteers
No
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About this study
Chronic low back pain (CLBP) is a debilitating condition and costly to treat. Long-term drug treatment often fails due to habituation, breakthrough of pain, or adverse effects of drug treatment. Opioid use to manage this pain has contributed to the opioid epidemic. Spinal cord stimulators have emerged as a promising treatment and reduces reliance on drugs. However, response to spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is unpredictable. It is difficult to predict which patients will respond positively to SCS because the physiological mechanism for treatment responsiveness is unclear. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate how spinal cord stimulators affect functional measures in patients with CLBP, including functional MRI, neurophysiology, gait analysis, and questionnaires. The results of this study can lead to the widespread adoption of spinal cord stimulators as a safe and effective therapy for CLBP, reducing the reliance on opioids and mitigating the opioid epidemic's impact.
Sponsor: University of California, Los Angeles
You may qualify if…
- ✓ Able to give informed consent for participation in the trial and be able to comply with study-related requirements, procedures, and visits
- ✓ Male or female, between the ages of 18 and 80 years (inclusive)
- ✓ Current self-report of chronic low back pain (pain between the lower posterior margin of the rib cage and the horizontal gluteal fold), which has persisted for \> the past 3 months AND has resulted in pain on \> 50% of days in the past 6 months\* (\*Chronic low back pain criteria as defined by the NIH Pain Consortium Research Task Force (RTF) and BACPAC Minimum Dataset Working Group)
- ✓ Already undergoing spinal cord stimulator treatment for chronic low back pain
- ✓ Able to use their lower extremities
- ✓ Able to tolerate fMRI and neurophysiological evaluation
You may not qualify if…
- ✕ Significant decision-making incapacity preventing informed consent
- ✕ Any medical condition that could interfere with study procedures, accurate pain reporting, and/or confound evaluation of study endpoints, as determined by the Investigator.
- ✕ Lifetime history of psychiatric disorder (schizophrenia, bipolar disorder with psychotic features, or other psychotic disorder), or current suicidal ideation
- ✕ Any stimulation device and/or implant other than a spinal cord stimulator, such as a drug pump, pacemaker, deep brain stimulator (DBS), or sacral nerve stimulator (SNS)
- ✕ Life expectancy of less than 1 year
- ✕ Pregnant or nursing (if female and sexually active, patient must be using a reliable form of birth control, be surgically sterile, or be at least 2 years post-menopausal)
- ✕ Any documented history of substance abuse (narcotics, alcohol, etc.) or substance dependency (not including marijuana use)
- ✕ Participation in another clinical trial currently or within the past 30 days
Where it's recruiting
Los Angeles
Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · NCT06310226 · last updated 2026-02-13