Duloxetine has recently been shown to be effective in reducing the pain in chronic pain patients. Duloxetine is known to exert a central mechanism, however the precise human brain structures responsible for mediating its pain-relieving properties are not known. We will use functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) to investigate the neural and functional correlates of pain.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
TRIPLE
Enrollment
14
30-60mg of duloxetine daily
Placebo pill once daily
Stanford University School of Medicine
Stanford, California, United States
Pain
Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) scores were obtained at baseline, weeks 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, and 12, and a follow-up visit one week after completing the study. Responses are rated on a scale from 0-10, with 0 = no pain and 10 = pain as bad as you can imagine. Placebo and duloxetine pain scores calculated by averaging pain scores from each visit after baseline. Values were converted to percent change in pain: \[(baseline pain - end point pain)/baseline pain\] x 100.
Time frame: 3 months
Neural Correlates of Pain Relief
Scores reflect the average connectivity strength of that region of interest to the rest of the cortex. There were no minimum or maximum values on this scale. Higher scores reflect stronger connectivity, and lower scores reflect less connectivity (all scores fell within -3 and 3). Subscales are averaged.
Time frame: 3 months
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