Clinical neuropharmacology of Pain in Spinal Cord Injury

[Wise Young]

http://www.centerwatch.com/patient/studies/stu28038.html

Summary: Clinical neuropharmacology of Pain in Spinal Cord Injury

Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Anesthesia is conducting a research project to evaluate investigational drugs as a treatment for specific types of pain caused by spinal cord injury (SCI).

Patient Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria:

Individuals between the ages of 18 and 70 with SCI who have had persistent pain for a minimum of 3 months following SCI may be eligible. The study requires 5 or 6 hospital visits over the course of 31 weeks.


Contact:
Kate Jenkins Research Coordinator
Massachusetts General Hospital
Fruit Street
Boston, MA 02115
Telephone: 617-724-0330
Email: PainTrials@partners.org

[Wise Young]

Christine N. Sang, M.D., M.P.H. at the Massachusetts General Hospital is funded by the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation to study the role of glutamate receptor blockers in the treatment of central neuropathic pain in patients after spinal cord injury.

According to the new CRPF description (CRPF Progress in Research, Issue 39, Summer 2001) of the research that is being funded at MGH:

Standard medicine offers a plethora of ineffective pharmacological interventions for the chronic pain the accompanies spnal cord injury. Dr. Sang's research seeks to identify new agents that target specific biological mechanisms underlying SCI pain. This clinical trial will test the drug LY293558, a new ANTA/KA receptor antagonist, on people with spontaneous pain and allodynia. Other ANTA/KA antagonists have proven effective against pain in animal models of injury but LY293558 is unique in its minimal side effects at doses shown to relieve the chronic pain associated with excitation of spinal cord pain-processing signals. It is hoped the trial, which uses ketamine as a positive control and a saline placebo, will improve treatment options by identifying a specific drug that tarets a particular type of central neuropathic pain.

[Wise Young]

This trial is also posted on http://www.spinalcord.uab.edu/show.asp?durki=43304