View clinical trials related to Somatoform Disorders.
Filter by:This is a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) regarding conservative treatment of Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome (PFPS). Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome (PFPS) is a very common cause of knee pain in young active adults with a high rate of recurrent and/or chronic occurrence. PFPS is notoriously difficult to treat and has been referred to as "one of the most vexatious clinical challenges in rehabilitative medicine". Its etiology is unclear but is commonly thought to be related to pathomechanics in the patellofemoral joint (PFJ). There are many factors that can influence PFJ mechanics. Among these, quadriceps strength and timing has been shown to be important. As such, treatment of PFPS has traditionally been based on correction of pathomechanics through influencing quadriceps strength and timing. However, a growing body of evidence is revealing the importance of strength and control of hip abduction and external rotation in PFPS. Hip strength in ab/adduction and rotation is thought to influence femoral positioning in the patellofemoral joint, thereby affecting PFJ mechanics. Several cohort and smaller RCT studies within the last 7 years have shown that additional exercises for hip strength and control give an improved effect in pain and function compared with quadriceps based training alone. A smaller RCT from 2012 compared isolated hip strengthening exercises to a control group and found surprisingly good results on pain in function in the hip strengthening group. The investigators plan a RCT in which isolated hip strengthening will be compared to traditional quadriceps training and a control group which will receive no structured training. Primary outcomes will be pain and function. This high-quality study will include 40-50 patients in each group, making it one of the largest of its kind on conservative treatment for PFPS. In contrast to the vast majority of studies of this type, this study will also include men, which will potentially help to fill a significant gap in the literature on this subject. The investigators study will therefore be an important contribution to elucidating the etiology of PFPS and improving treatment options for both men and women in the future. As well, the role of psychometric parameters will be examined and a standardized clinical test for hip abduction endurance will be developed. Follow-up at 3 months and 12 months is completed and published. A 5-year follow-up of the same patients is underway.
The efficacy of the current standard non-pharmacological treatments for complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), a painful syndrome mostly occurring after musculoskeletal trauma, is suboptimal. It thus appears essential to examine new non-pharmacological therapeutic imagery (GMI) - a non-pharmacological approach with the highest level of evidence (level II). As suggested by the most recent clinical guideline 2, a potential solution would be to add an electrotherapeutic procedure - transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) - that may prove effective in modulating cortical excitability and reducing the effect of cortical reorganization on pain. Given the positive results previously obtained in patients with neuropathic pain, it is hypothesized that tDCS will prove to be an innovative add-on treatment method for CRPS patients, and help reduce pain and disability.
Chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome is an extremely common urologic diagnosis and accounts for approximately 2 million outpatient visits to urology practices in the United States alone. Up to 6% of men in Canada recently experienced at least moderate to severe prostatitis-like symptoms with two thirds having symptoms lasting more than one year. There are a myriad of therapies for prostatitis, some of which work on some of the men but none works for all the men. Recently, a number of centres have been using low energy shock waves applied on the skin to target the prostate and the muscles around the prostate. The initial reports showed a significant reduction in the pain experienced by the men with prostatitis. However, this potentially highly promising therapy has not been widely used at least in part due to a lack of properly designed studies to validate this therapy. The investigators plan a randomized control trial using shock wave therapy on men with prostatitis. The goal is to provide some solid evidence that either shock waves are or are not of clinical benefit. The investigators hypothesize men with chronic prostatitis/ chronic pelvic pain syndrome will have a reduction in pain and improved voiding and sexual function following low power transdermal shock wave therapy to the prostate and surrounding pelvic muscles.
Chronic pelvic pain (CPP) can affect both sexes and lasts at least for 3 months. CPP in women could be due to endometrioses, ovarian cyst, colitis, etc, making the correct diagnosis important (1-3). The most prevalent reason for CPP in men is non-bacterial chronic prostatitis and in many cases they are considered equivalent to each other (4). Chronic non-bacterial prostatitis is associated with pain in pelvic region and could be associated with other symptoms such as dysuria, myalgia, arthralgia, chronic fatigue, burning sensation in the urethra, abdominal, urine frequency, and pain after ejaculation (4-6). Chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS) is devided into two groups: III A Type (inflammatory) and III B (Non-inflammatory). The difference between the two groups is the presence of leukocytes in prostatic secretions after prostate massage, urine and semen (7,8). In general population, the prevalence of chronic pelvic pain syndrome is about 0.5 percent because many patients do not consider their symptoms as disease, while 6.3% of people may show symptoms (9-11). One of the most important challenges in the treatment of chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome, is that its etiology is obscure and it is known as a multi-factorial syndrome. The proposed explanations are infection, psychological reasons, autoimmunity and neuro-myospasm. Hypotheses about endothelial cells defect and cardio vascular disease have also been proposed, upon which the new therapies have been based. In duplex mapping study of prostatic vessels in two groups of healthy and chronic non-bacterial prostatitis people, it was shown that there was a significant reduction in systolic flow in prostatic arteries in people who had chronic non-bacterial prostatitis, and there was a direct association between pain and blood flow intensity, suggesting chronic ischemia as a possible cause for pain (13). Pain in prostate without significant infection is the hallmark of chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome (5). In physical exam, prostate or pelvic tenderness may be observed in half of the patients. The diagnosis of chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome is challenging. No specific lab test exists for its detection. Prostate specific antigen (PSA) level, which is typically increased in acute infection, is usually normal in this condition. The diagnostic approach in these patients is based on ruling out other curable causes such as benign prostatic hyperplasia or bladder cancer (14-20). NIH Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index (NIH-CPSI) is used to evaluate symptom severity and response to treatment in these patients. A reduction of 4-6 points in the score is considered significant response to the treatment (21). There is no first line treatment for patients of chronic pelvic pain syndrome. The use of anti-bacterial, alpha-blockers or anti-inflammatory drug is logical. However, if the patient does not respond, further administration is not helpful. In non-responders, combination of drugs or other non-medical methods should be considered (23-26). As discussed earlier, blood flow reduction, ischemia and disorders in endothelium of vessels may cause pain in these patients and methods to improve blow flow may help(13,27). One of these methods is extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) which is typically used for tendonitis, acceleration in bone reunion and wound healing, improvement in muscle movements through a reduction in passive muscular tonus, increasing muscular range of motion after cerebrovascular accident (CVA), treatment of Peyronie's disease and erectile dysfunction (28-30). Shoskes et al compared 24 chronic prostatitis patients with 11 controls in terms of vascular stiffness, indexes of increased blood flow, vasodilation and reactive vascular hyperemia, using Endo-PAT ® 2000-Machine. They showed that endothelial disorder and stiffness along with the risk of cardiovascular disorders are increased in CP/CPPS (31). The use of ESWT for the treatment of CP/CPPS has been evaluated in a few studies. In a double-blind randomized control trial, Zimmermann et al placed 60 patients with chronic pelvic pain syndrome from chronic non-bacterial prostatitis into two groups and treated one of them in 4 sessions with a frequency of 3000 per session. The treatment group showed superior results in terms of symptom improvement(32). In another study, Zimmermann et al followed 34 patients with chronic pelvic pain syndrome, after one, four and twelve weeks post ESWT in terms of quality of life and pain reduction. They showed that this method is useful and without any complications (33). Considering the promising results of the cited articles along with the paucity of data in this regard we decided to perform a double-blind sham-controlled study to evaluate the effectiveness of ESWT in CP/CPPS.
Temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) are the major cause of non-dental pain in orofacial area. Laser therapy can be considered as one of the most recent treatment approaches in the field of physiotherapy. The special features of laser light such as coherence, monochromaticity, and collimation can result in the ability of laser light to modify cellular metabolism, increase tissue repair and reduce edema and inflammation. Several studies demonstrated successful results regarding the use of low level lasers in releasing pain of musculoskeletal conditions, but there are also contradictory reports in this field, and the clinical effectiveness of this treatment modality has been debated in some review articles. A few studies evaluated the efficacy of low level laser therapy in the treatment of temporomandibular disorders and the associated myofacial pain. There are remarkable variations in the methodology of these researches and some reported insufficient data regarding the physical properties of the laser used. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of low level laser therapy in improving the sign and symptoms of patients suffering from myofacial pain syndrome.
The purpose of this study is to determine whether pregabalin is an effective treatment for Chronic Prostatitis/Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome.