There are about 28871 clinical studies being (or have been) conducted in Canada. The country of the clinical trial is determined by the location of where the clinical research is being studied. Most studies are often held in multiple locations & countries.
Pain control after surgery is a crucial component of postoperative recovery. Thus, in open abdominal surgery, the use of TEA (Thoracic epidural analgesia) has become a gold standard. However, analgesia may still remain a challenge, especially in patients with large incision abdominal incisions. To address this problem, the use of the PIEB (Programmed intermittent epidural bolus) mode has been proposed, because it offers a better spread of the epidural medication. Only a few studies have evaluated the superiority of this PIEB mode in open abdominal surgery, yielding conflicting results. However, PIEB showed to be at least as effective in controlling pain as CEI, and clinical experience shows that it can be a valuable tool, especially in patients with a large laparotomy incision. However, the optimal dosage of the PIEB mode has never been determined, Furthermore, it is known whether men and women have the same dosage needs to achieve adequate analgesia since most studies have failed to account for sex-based differences in postoperative analgesia. Hence, the main objective of this study will be to determine the optimal volume dose of the PIEB delivered at a fixed interval of 60 min in patients undergoing surgery using a large midline laparotomy incision. The optimal dose for male and female patients will be determined separately by evaluating men and women in two independent groups. We hypothesize that the optimal dose of the PIEB that will provide effective analgesia in 90% of patients on the first postoperative day will range between 5 and 10 mL, for both groups. The primary outcome in both groups is successful analgesia. It is defined as a requirement of 5 or less patient-controlled epidural boluses between 8 AM and 8 PM on the first postoperative day. Secondary outcomes will be the incidence of motor block and hypotension, comparison of the level of sensory block according to group, comparison of patient satisfaction according to group and comparison of Quality of Recovery-15 score at 48h post-op according to group.
The Family Stress Study is following families with young children in Guelph, Hamilton and surrounding areas over 3 years to understand how chronic stress impacts children's weight gain over time and how this association is mediated by alterations in children's cortisol production and weight-related behaviours.
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), hepatitis C (HCV), and syphilis are sexually transmitted and blood borne infections (STBBI) that affect millions of people worldwide and rates are rising in Canada. HCV and syphilis are curable, and HIV is treatable with virtually no risk of transmission to sexual partners when the infection is controlled, however, these outcomes require adequate testing. Unfortunately, an estimated 44% of Canadians living with HCV and 13% living with HIV are not diagnosed. These undiagnosed cases are the source of over half of new HIV infections. Furthermore, HIV-syphilis coinfection is common. Accessible testing forms a key pillar of an elimination strategy and acts as an access point for linking people to care. Community pharmacies are more accessible site for STBBI testing, compared to hospitals and doctors' offices. This is especially true for members of marginalized communities, some of whom are at higher risk of infection. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for low-barrier STBBI testing, as in-person healthcare services at doctors' offices and traditional screening clinics were scaled back. Pharmacies remained open throughout the pandemic. The APPROACH 2.0 study will assess the impact of a pharmacy-based testing program for HIV, hepatitis C, and syphilis in participating pharmacies in three Canadian provinces: Newfoundland & Labrador, Alberta, and Nova Scotia on finding new diagnoses and linkages with care. Participants will be offered point of care tests for HIV and/or HCV and/or a dry blood spot test which will test for HIV, HCV, and syphilis. These tests are easy to administer. Results from the point of care tests are available immediately during the pharmacy visit while participants will be contacted with dried blood spot test results when available (approximately 2 weeks). Participants with reactive tests are linked with confirmatory testing and care, and those with non-reactive results are offered preventative services including HIV PrEP (as indicated) and counselling. This study builds on a pilot study completed in 2017 (www.APPROACHstudy.ca).
PLATINUM-CAN is a parallel collaborative trial linked with the sister trial PLATINUM led by Oxford University. PLATINUM-CAN is a multi-centre, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of Tecovirimat in non-hospitalized patients with presumptive or PCR confirmed monkeypox infection. The study will provide evidence on the efficacy and safety of Tecovirimat for laboratory-confirmed monkeypox in outpatients with monkeypox infection and determine the feasibility of conducting interventional monkeypox trials in Canada.
This retrospective collaborative study on persistent exercise intolerance after COVID-19 offers to perform a large descriptive analysis of CPET performed in real-life by pulmonologists, cardiologists and physiologists. Indeed, these practicians are regularly consulted for a persistent intolerance to exercise expressed by dyspnea and/or frank fatigability sometimes associated with muscular or thoracic pain. When these complaints persist beyond 3 months after the first symptoms, it is legitimate to perform a CPET: - Either to evaluate the functional impact of an identified organ deficiency (e.g. myocarditis, pulmonary fibrosis, etc.), - Or, in the absence of formal arguments for an identified organ deficiency, to observe possible abnormalities in physiological responses during an incremental exercise test, likely to explain the persistence of symptoms and intolerance to exercise. Indeed, the recent literature highlights the presence of non-specific ventilatory and cardio-circulatory abnormalities leading to various physio-pathological observations. Unfortunately, these reports now concern relatively small numbers of patients with very diverse clinical forms of Covid, comorbidities and habitus. In order to improve the understanding of persistent symptoms and in particular the diversity of physiological response presentations, the investigators propose to collect a very large amount of data through a web-based platform designed to collect the measurements made throughout the exercise test directly from the ergospirometer. The relevant data covers the period from January 2, 2020 to December 31, 2022 (i.e. 35 months), The retrospective data collection will be carried out from February 1, 2023 to December 31, 2023. The descriptive analysis will focus on the kinetics of all the variables measured and calculated on subgroups defined a priori on age, sex, comorbidities, acute covid severity, persistent symptoms post covid, regular habitual physical activity level, etc. according to the sample. The study is expected to collect data from around 1000 patients and to involve around 40 French-speaking investigators. However, this collaborative study is open on request to all centers wishing to participate, as the web platform has been developed for data collection in English.
A Randomized, Open-label, Crossover Study to Evaluate the Comparative Bioavailability, Pharmacokinetics, and Safety of GTX-102 Administered as an Oral Spray Compared to Intramuscular Injection - betamethasone and an Oral Solution of Betamethasone in Healthy Subjects. Four groups of subjects will receive 2 treatments each and randomized in 2-way crossover.
Anorexia nervosa (AN) is characterized by a reduced drive to pursue rewarding experiences and stimuli. Food consumption - which is almost universally experienced as pleasurable - is not described as rewarding by those with AN. This is thought to be underpinned by abnormalities around reward learning. However, the most fundamental question relating to reward in AN - whether those with AN may learn positive associations - remains unaddressed. In this study, the investigators will identify the patterns of how those with AN acquire positive associations, how they diminish, and their relationships to physiology (heart rate and pupil responses) and brain activation. In assessing the robustness of this learning, the investigators will investigate the extent to which this association is reactivated after 24 hours, and the extent to which a memory prompt will help reinstate this previously learned positive association. This project will allow for important advances in our understanding of the neurobiology of AN. The investigators will first identify if, and how, those with AN come to learn positive associations to cues, and secondly, the extent to which learned positive associations remain over time. Moreover, the investigators will use machine learning to ascertain whether reward learning can be predicted by physiological and neural biomarkers.
The purpose of this study is to assess which antidepressants work the best in older adults who have treatment-resistant depression (TRD), and to test whether treatment-resistant late life depression is associated with declines in memory and attention and brain structure and function.
The primary objectives of the study are to evaluate the efficacy of BIIB059 (litifilimab) compared with placebo in reducing skin disease activity measured by the Cutaneous Lupus Activity of Physician's Global Assessment-Revised (CLA-IGA-R) score [Parts A and B (US)] and the Cutaneous Lupus Erythematosus Disease Area and Severity Index Activity (CLASI-A) score [Part B (ROW)] in participants with active SCLE and/or CCLE with or without systemic manifestations and refractory and/or intolerant to antimalarials. The secondary objectives of the study are to evaluate the efficacy of BIIB059 in reducing SCLE and/or CCLE disease activity by CLA-IGA-R, CLASI-A; to evaluate additional efficacy parameters of BIIB059 in reducing SCLE and/or CCLE disease activity; safety; tolerability; and immunogenicity of BIIB059 [Parts A and B].
The global population is aging at an unprecedented rate, increasing the necessity for effective interventions targeting the mental health needs of older adults. Virtual reality (VR) is a type of technology with the potential to improve mental health and well-being that allows users, via electronic devices such as headsets or goggles, to interact within simulated environments. VR programs using nature, mindfulness-meditation, and compassion may be more immersive and engaging, with research showing that these programs are effective at improving mental health and well-being outcomes in younger adults. However, evidence in this area for older adults is currently lacking. The present project intends to pilot and examine a multi-user 360-High Definition (HD) video VR application, called "Toujours Dimanche", developed in partnership with Super Sublime, a Montreal-based not-for-profit company. This VR application aims to support older adults through incorporating elements of nature, mindfulness-meditation, and compassion via a 4-week program of twice weekly, 10 to 20-minute meditation sessions, for a total of 8 sessions. Thus, this study seeks to pilot, revise and iteratively evaluate, via randomized control trial (RCT) methodology, the acceptability, feasibility, and effectiveness of a multi-user 360-HD video VR application (Toujours Dimanche) at improving older adult mental health and well-being. It is hypothesized that engagement with the 4-week VR-Meditation intervention will lead to lower scores on stress and negative affect and improved scores on well-being, positive affect, and mindfulness, in addition to increased scores on coping self-efficacy, connection with nature, embodied mindfulness, and self-compassion, over time and as compared to the active control group (who will receive psycho-educational pamphlets 1x/week for 4 weeks).