The METRIC Study Protocol — METRIC  

Chronic Low-back Pain Clinical Trial

Official title: The METRIC Study Protocol: an Explanatory Randomized Controlled Trial Investigating the Neurophysiological Mechanisms Underlying the Therapeutic Effects of Spinal Manipulative Therapy for Chronic Primary Low Back Pain

Status Recruiting

Clinical Trial Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to test the effects of spinal manipulative therapy in individuals with chronic primary low back pain and determine the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying pain relief. The main questions it aims to answer are: • Is pain relief produced by spinal manipulative therapy in patients with chronic primary low back pain caused by a reduction of C-fiber-related nociceptive processing? • Are these effects greater when spinal manipulative therapy is applied to the whole spine where it is clinically indicated compared with lumbar spine only? • Are these effects greater after 36 treatments over 3 months compared with 12 treatments over 1 month. Participants will receive spinal manipulative therapy (all clinically indicated spine segments or back only) or a control intervention. A group of healthy volunteers will be recruited to assess secondary outcome measures over the same time period, as reference data for comparisons. Researchers will compare the two groups receiving spinal manipulative therapy to the group receiving the control intervention to see if clinical pain relief and the reduction of temporal summation of second pain (produced experimentally) is significantly greater with spinal manipulative therapy.

Clinical Trial Description

n/a

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Back Pain
• Chronic Low-back Pain
• Low Back Pain

• NCT number: NCT05986370
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières
• Contact: Benjamin Provencher
• Phone: 1-819-376-5011
• Email: metric@uqtr.ca
• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: October 25, 2023
• Completion date: December 31, 2026