Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation for Pain Treatment in Gulf War Illness.

Gulf War Syndrome Clinical Trial

Official title: Investigating Pain in Gulf War Illness With Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation.

Status Terminated

Clinical Trial Summary

The goal of this study is to investigate long-term modulation of pain pathways leading to a suppression of pain symptoms in Gulf War Illness patients by applying transcranial direct current stimulation.

Clinical Trial Description

Gulf War Illness is a chronic and multisymptomatic disorder affecting returning military veterans of the 1990-1991 Gulf war. Pain is a major complaint of Gulf War Illness patients and is a leading cause of disability in veterans diagnosed with musculoskeletal ailments including joint and muscle pain, muscle fatigue, difficulty with lifting objects, and extremity paresthesia's. As a result, the target of the present study is the treatment of the pain symptoms, as this is detectable across all Gulf War Illness case classification systems.

Transcranial Direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive and painless electrical stimulation technique that has already demonstrated to improve pain symptoms in other patient populations, e.g. fibromyalgia patients. To investigate whether we can improve pain symptoms in GWI patients with pain complaints, we will compare behavioral (questionnaires) and electrophysiological (Electroencephalography) measures before and immediately after 10 sessions of tDCS and on several follow up sessions after the last tDCS from 2 groups. ;

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Gulf War Syndrome
• Persian Gulf Syndrome

• NCT number: NCT03547869
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: The University of Texas at Dallas
• Status: Terminated
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: March 12, 2018
• Completion date: January 25, 2022