Quantitative Sensory Testing in Chronic Pain Patients Undergoing Opioid Treatment and Opioid Tapering

Sensory Deficit Clinical Trial

Official title:

Quantitative Sensory Testing in Chronic Pain Patients Undergoing Opioid Treatment and Opioid Tapering

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT03375216
• Other study ID #: 17-0195
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: December 22, 2017
• Est. completion date: November 18, 2023

Study information

• Verified date: February 2024
• Source: The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

Few studies have used quantitative sensory tests to study the effect of chronic opioid treatment on sensation. The investigators will test chronic pain patients who are on different MEDDs, normal volunteers, and patients undergoing an opioid taper. This will be the first study to perform sensory testing on patients while undergoing an opioid taper on an outpatient basis.

Description:

Death from drug overdoses reached a record high in 2014, with the majority involving an opioid. The United States government has labeled this an epidemic due to the progressive rise in opioid-involved deaths. In 2015, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined that, on average, 650,000 opioid prescriptions are dispensed daily in the United States alone. It is well-documented and observed in clinical practice that patients on chronic opioid therapy will commonly require an escalation in opioid dose over time to maintain analgesia. The consequence of such escalations is the development of tolerance to opioids, along with other known adverse effects of opioids including respiratory depression, constipation, and potential for addiction. The drastic increase in opioid doses over the years has urged the CDC to release a report for primary care clinicians treating patients with chronic pain. This report provides a risk assessment and recommendations for prescribing opioids for non-cancer chronic pain. The guidelines state that careful reassessment of individual benefits must be considered when increasing doses to ≥50 morphine milligram equivalents (MME)/day, and that increases to ≥90 MME/day must be avoided, with recommendations for consultation with a specialist. Avoiding high opioid doses will also minimize the development of opioid-induced hyperalgesia, which is a paradoxical response to increases in opioid doses; these patients become increasingly sensitized to painful stimuli. While the precise mechanism of this condition remains to be elucidated, treatment includes reducing and tapering opioids. Interestingly, an article on patient-reported outcomes surveyed a group of 517 patients that revealed the higher opioid dose group to have greater pain intensity, poorer self-efficacy for managing pain, and more impairment in functioning and quality of life.

Several studies have looked at the use of various pain testing models to investigate the effects of chronic opioid therapy and changes in pain perception. A systematic review of the literature was performed to identify clinical studies incorporating measures of hyperalgesia in patients on chronic opioid therapy. This review was aimed at finding the optimal testing modality to evaluate pain threshold and tolerance to external stimuli, including mechanical (pressure, touch, injection), thermal (cold/heat), and electrical. Although the results did not reveal any one method with sufficient power, several prospective studies evaluating hyperalgesia with heat pain ratings have shown some promising results; two studies revealing significant changes in heat responses for opioid treatment groups, and one study demonstrating lower heat pain perception values following an opioid taper. The latter study is unique in that research pertaining to changes in pain sensitivity on patients following an opioid taper is lacking. Little is known at this juncture how pain thresholds change to opioid dose reductions and following completion of a taper.

The purpose of the study is to objectively measure pain threshold levels in patients without opioids, low dose opioids, high dose opioids and patients undergoing a taper from long-term opioid therapy. This study utilizes taper techniques that are commonly employed in a pain medicine practice. The innovation involves use of quantitative measures of sensitivity to evaluate patients on differing opioid doses and undergoing current taper practices.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 43
• Est. completion date: November 18, 2023
• Est. primary completion date: November 18, 2023
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years to 75 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patient age between 18 and 75

• History of chronic pain for at least 3 months

• Patients may have been selected for opioid taper by their pain physicians.

• Patients may or may not be on opioid therapy.

• They must have the ability to understand the protocol and provide voluntary, written, informed consent.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Cancer pain

• Unstable medical conditions (including but not limited to history of myocardial infarction within the past year, autoimmune diseases, uncontrolled diabetes with hemoglobin A1C of greater than 10)

• Pregnancy

• Inability to adequately answer surveys

• History of substance abuse within 5 years

• Surgery within the past month

• Surgery planned during the next six months

• Use of systemic steroids.

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Analgesic Drug Dependence
• Chronic Pain
• Sensory Deficit
• Substance-Related Disorders

Intervention

Behavioral:
• sensory testing (Heat, cold, and pressure)
sensory threshold measurement is the point at which the participant feels pain due to either heat, cold, or pressure
• Promis Survey
PROMIS computer adaptive survey in anxiety, depression, pain behavior, fatigue, pian interference, physical function, sleep disturbance, self efficacy

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	University of Texas Medical Branch	Galveston	Texas

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

References & Publications (15)

Chu LF, D'Arcy N, Brady C, Zamora AK, Young CA, Kim JE, Clemenson AM, Angst MS, Clark DJ. Analgesic tolerance without demonstrable opioid-induced hyperalgesia: a double-blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of sustained-release morphine for treatm — View Citation

Dumas EO, Pollack GM. Opioid tolerance development: a pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic perspective. AAPS J. 2008 Dec;10(4):537-51. doi: 10.1208/s12248-008-9056-1. Epub 2008 Nov 7. — View Citation

Dyck PJ, Zimmerman IR, Johnson DM, Gillen D, Hokanson JL, Karnes JL, Gruener G, O'Brien PC. A standard test of heat-pain responses using CASE IV. J Neurol Sci. 1996 Mar;136(1-2):54-63. doi: 10.1016/0022-510x(95)00277-9. — View Citation

Hooten WM, Mantilla CB, Sandroni P, Townsend CO. Associations between heat pain perception and opioid dose among patients with chronic pain undergoing opioid tapering. Pain Med. 2010 Nov;11(11):1587-98. doi: 10.1111/j.1526-4637.2010.00962.x. Epub 2010 Oct — View Citation

Katz NP, Paillard FC, Edwards RR. Review of the performance of quantitative sensory testing methods to detect hyperalgesia in chronic pain patients on long-term opioids. Anesthesiology. 2015 Mar;122(3):677-85. doi: 10.1097/ALN.0000000000000530. — View Citation

Krishnan S, Salter A, Sullivan T, Gentgall M, White J, Rolan P. Comparison of pain models to detect opioid-induced hyperalgesia. J Pain Res. 2012;5:99-106. doi: 10.2147/JPR.S27738. Epub 2012 Apr 27. — View Citation

Lee M, Silverman SM, Hansen H, Patel VB, Manchikanti L. A comprehensive review of opioid-induced hyperalgesia. Pain Physician. 2011 Mar-Apr;14(2):145-61. — View Citation

Morasco BJ, Yarborough BJ, Smith NX, Dobscha SK, Deyo RA, Perrin NA, Green CA. Higher Prescription Opioid Dose is Associated With Worse Patient-Reported Pain Outcomes and More Health Care Utilization. J Pain. 2017 Apr;18(4):437-445. doi: 10.1016/j.jpain.2 — View Citation

Pud D, Cohen D, Lawental E, Eisenberg E. Opioids and abnormal pain perception: New evidence from a study of chronic opioid addicts and healthy subjects. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2006 May 20;82(3):218-23. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2005.09.007. Epub 2005 Oct 17 — View Citation

Sullivan MD, Turner JA, DiLodovico C, D'Appollonio A, Stephens K, Chan YF. Prescription Opioid Taper Support for Outpatients With Chronic Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial. J Pain. 2017 Mar;18(3):308-318. doi: 10.1016/j.jpain.2016.11.003. Epub 2016 Nov — View Citation

Suzan E, Eisenberg E, Treister R, Haddad M, Pud D. A negative correlation between hyperalgesia and analgesia in patients with chronic radicular pain: is hydromorphone therapy a double-edged sword? Pain Physician. 2013 Jan;16(1):65-76. — View Citation

Wasserman RA, Hassett AL, Harte SE, Goesling J, Malinoff HL, Berland DW, Zollars J, Moser SE, Brummett CM. Pressure Pain Sensitivity in Patients With Suspected Opioid-Induced Hyperalgesia. Reg Anesth Pain Med. 2015 Nov-Dec;40(6):687-93. doi: 10.1097/AAP.0 — View Citation

Weimer MB, Hartung DM, Ahmed S, Nicolaidis C. A chronic opioid therapy dose reduction policy in primary care. Subst Abus. 2016;37(1):141-7. doi: 10.1080/08897077.2015.1129526. — View Citation

Wilkes D, Martinello C, Medeiros FA, Babazade R, Hurwitz E, Khanjee N, Iyer PS, Leary P, Vadhera RB. Ultrasound-determined landmarks decrease pressure pain at epidural insertion site in immediate post-partum period. Minerva Anestesiol. 2017 Oct;83(10):103 — View Citation

Wright A, Benson HAE, Will R, Moss P. Cold Pain Threshold Identifies a Subgroup of Individuals With Knee Osteoarthritis That Present With Multimodality Hyperalgesia and Elevated Pain Levels. Clin J Pain. 2017 Sep;33(9):793-803. doi: 10.1097/AJP.0000000000 — View Citation

* Note: There are 15 references in all — Click here to view all references

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Heat threshold measurements	Heat threshold measurements (degrees Celsius) will be obtained using a pen-shaped temperature probe. Tests will be performed on a designated painful and non-painful body surface. Testing will completed when patient reports numeric pain rating of 5 or greater, or at a temperature >49 degrees Celsius.	2 years
Primary	Cold threshold measurements	Cold threshold measurements (degrees Celsius) will be obtained using a pen-shaped temperature probe. Tests will be performed on a designated painful and non-painful body surface. Testing will be completed when patient reports discomfort with cold stimulus, or if probe temperature reaches 0 degrees Celsius.	2 years
Primary	Pressure threshold measurements	Pressure threshold measurements (Newtons) will be obtained using a hand-held algometer. Tests will be performed on a designated painful and non-painful body surface. Testing will be completed when patient reports discomfort with pressure stimulus, or if pressure exceeds 60 Newtons.	2 years
Secondary	PROMIS surveys	PROMIS (Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System) surveys will be administered at the subject's initial, halfway and end of their evaluations. These measures include topics on anxiety, depression, pain behavior, fatigue, pain interference, physical function, sleep disturbance. The results from the surveys will be aggregated and compared to other participants' responses.	2 years

External Links

•   MMWR Recomm Rep 2016
•   the opioid epidemic by numbers