Clinical Trials
A clinical trial (also clinical research) is a research study in human volunteers to answer specific health questions. Carefully conducted clinical trials are the fastest and safest way to find treatments that work in people and ways to improve health. Interventional trials determine whether experimental treatments or new ways of using known therapies are safe and effective under controlled environments. Observational trials address health issues in large groups of people or populations in natural settings.
 
Clinical Trial Resources
ClinicalTrials.gov

Clinicaltrials.gov provides regularly updated information about federally and privately supported clinical research in human volunteers. ClinicalTrials.gov gives you information about a trial's purpose, who may participate, locations, and phone numbers for more details.

Click here to access the clinicaltrials.gov website.
CenterWatch.com

You can use this site to find a wealth of information about clinical research, including listings of more than 41,000 active industry and government-sponsored clinical trials, as well as new drug therapies in research and those recently approved by the FDA. Our site is designed to be an open resource for patients interested in participating in clinical trials and for research professionals.

Click here to access the CenterWatch Clinical Trials Resource Page.

TMS study for treatment of pain in patients with chronic pancreatitis

The Pancreas Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is recruiting subjects with chronic pancreatitis and pain to participate in a study of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation.

Many patients with chronic pancreatitis do not get relief with the current treatments for pain. We think this may be due to increased activity in a part of the brain that detects pain sensation from the pancreas and for which current pain treatments do not help. Therefore, use of a treatment to affect these activities of the brain would be a possible new approach to the relief of pain in patients with chronic pancreatitis. This new treatment is called Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS).

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a brain stimulation technique that involves generating a brief magnetic field in a coil that is placed on your scalp. The magnetic field passes through the skull and induces a weak electrical current in the brain that we believe will help alleviating your pain. This treatment is painless.

Subject selection:

You are eligible to participate in this study if:

  • You are age 18 years or older
  • You have daily abdominal pain for at least three months
  • You DON’T have past history of seizures
  • You DON’T have a vagal stimulator, deep brain stimulator or pacemeaker
  • You AREN’T pregnant
  • Additional inclusion and exclusion criteria will be checked by the investigator

Procedure:

If you are eligible and willing to participate in this study, you will then receive a schedule to begin TMS. There will be 10 consecutive sessions of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation that will be done Monday through Friday for 2 weeks. You will be evaluated before, during and after the treatment. These evaluations will measure your mood, anxiety, treatment response, pain and analgesic use. There will be 20 visits to the hospital during the baseline, treatment and follow-up period.

If you are interested in participating in this study or would like to learn more about this study, you can contact our research coordinator - Debora DaSilva at 617-667-5576 or ddasilva@bidmc.harvard.edu.
 
 
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