Vagus Nerve Stimulation(VNS) As Treatment For Fibromyalgia Patients

Study Purpose

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a syndrome with clinical symptoms involving multiple systems. The efficacy of current treatments is inadequate, and more alternative modalities are needed for the management of FM patients. The parasympathetic vagus nerve innervates and integrates sensory, motor, and autonomic systems and has been suggested to play a role in pain modulation. The role of vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) as a treatment option for FM patients is yet to be investigated. The investigators propose to examine the hypothesis that vagus nerve stimulation could improve pain and related comorbid symptoms for FM patients.

Recruitment Criteria

Accepts Healthy Volunteers Healthy volunteers are participants who do not have a disease or condition, or related conditions or symptoms	No
Study Type An interventional clinical study is where participants are assigned to receive one or more interventions (or no intervention) so that researchers can evaluate the effects of the interventions on biomedical or health-related outcomes. An observational clinical study is where participants identified as belonging to study groups are assessed for biomedical or health outcomes. Searching Both is inclusive of interventional and observational studies.	Interventional
Eligible Ages	18 Years - 80 Years
Gender	All

More Inclusion & Exclusion Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Subject is 18 to 80 years old, including both male and female subjects. 2. Subject has a documented diagnosis of FM for at least three months. This requirement is to avoid the uncertainty of an unstable pain condition and to minimize the study variation. 3. Subject has a pain score of 4 or above (numeric pain score: 0

- 10 from no pain to worst pain).

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Subject has current cardiac arrhythmia or had implanted cardiac pacemaker or AICD device. 2. Subject has major psychiatric disorder required hospitalization in the last 3 months. 3. Subject has active infection at the site of device application. 4. Subject has recurrent syncope symptoms within the past three months. 5. Subject is pregnant. 6. Subject has had VNS treatment within the past two months. .

Trial Details

Trial ID: This trial id was obtained from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, providing information on publicly and privately supported clinical studies of human participants with locations in all 50 States and in 196 countries.	NCT06009159
Phase Phase 1: Studies that emphasize safety and how the drug is metabolized and excreted in humans. Phase 2: Studies that gather preliminary data on effectiveness (whether the drug works in people who have a certain disease or condition) and additional safety data. Phase 3: Studies that gather more information about safety and effectiveness by studying different populations and different dosages and by using the drug in combination with other drugs. Phase 4: Studies occurring after FDA has approved a drug for marketing, efficacy, or optimal use.	N/A
Lead Sponsor The sponsor is the organization or person who oversees the clinical study and is responsible for analyzing the study data.	Massachusetts General Hospital
Principal Investigator The person who is responsible for the scientific and technical direction of the entire clinical study.	N/A
Principal Investigator Affiliation	N/A
Agency Class Category of organization(s) involved as sponsor (and collaborator) supporting the trial.	Other
Overall Status	Recruiting
Countries	United States
Conditions The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied.	Fibromyalgia

Additional Details

The main goal of this study is to generate preliminary data on the effect of VNS on FM symptoms. Specifically, the investigators will utilize a recently developed, non-invasive method of tVNS (transcutaneous VNS) via auricular branches of vagus nerve (ABVN). The investigators plan to conduct an 4-week clinical study with 60 subjects randomized into 2 groups(tVNS group and control group; 30 subjects in each group). The primary outcome measure will be pain intensity. The secondary outcome measures will be fatigue, sleep, and other health-related quality of life measure. These outcome measures will be made at baseline week 0 (before any intervention), and at the end of 4 weeks.

Arms & Interventions

Arms

Experimental: Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation(tVNS)

receive tVNS 30 minutes per session, twice/day for 4 weeks and maintain regular medication treatment without change.

No Intervention: Sham Control group

receive sham point stimulation 30 minutes per session, twice/day for 4 weeks and maintain regular medication treatment without change.

Interventions

Device: - Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation

30 minutes stimulation, twice per day for 4 weeks

Contact a Trial Team

If you are interested in learning more about this trial, find the trial site nearest to your location and contact the site coordinator via email or phone. We also strongly recommend that you consult with your healthcare provider about the trials that may interest you and refer to our terms of service below.

Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts

Status

Recruiting

Address

Massachusetts General Hospital

Boston, Massachusetts, 02114

Site Contact

Lucy Chen, M.D.

[email protected]

617-724-6102

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