Ulcerative Colitis Relapse Prevention Trial, Hypnosis (UCRPT)

April 1, 2014 updated by: Laurie Keefer, Northwestern University

National Center for Complementary & Alternative Medicine, The Role of Gut-Directed Hypnotherapy in Relapse Prevention for Ulcerative Colitis

The UCRPT is a randomized controlled trial to determine if a type of hypnotherapy will maintain remission in patients affected by Ulcerative Colitis.

Study Overview

Detailed Description

The purpose of the study is to determine whether hypnotherapy can serve as an effective therapy for patients with Ulcerative Colitis (UC), a chronic, relapsing and remitting inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

The goal of this study is to determine if mind-body therapy is an effective complementary therapy for IBD, meaning a therapy to be used in conjunction with your standard treatment provided by your gastroenterologist. Standard treatment for UC often includes a combination approach and may include medications such as mesalamine, corticosteroids or immunomodulators. Mind-body therapy or hypnosis has been used to reduce stress and subsequent disease activity in patients with gastrointestinal diseases including IBD and Irritable Bowel Syndrome. It has also been shown to improve immune function and reduce inflammation in other health conditions such as cancer and arthritis.

In this study, patients with inactive UC will be randomized to one of three groups. Two groups will undergo one of two mind-body therapies, which may include relaxation techniques or other techniques aimed at identifying the impact of UC on your psyche along with standard care for their UC. The other group will undergo 8 weeks of standard care without mind-body therapy. Clinical assessment measures will be repeated at 8 weeks, 12 weeks, 24 weeks and 52 weeks.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

55

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

    • Illinois
      • Chicago, Illinois, United States, 60611
        • Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 70 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • male and female patients between the ages of 18 and 70 of any ethnicity
  • endoscopy-confirmed (within the past 2 years) mild or moderately severe Ulcerative Colitis (at time of previous flare)
  • inactive disease at the time of recruitment:
  • Mayo score <2 with no subscale >1
  • no rectal bleeding
  • Physician Global Assessment Score (PGA) = 0
  • 2 weeks of baseline daily symptom diaries that support criteria for inactive disease
  • documented disease flare within the past 1.5 years to enhance the opportunity to observe differences between groups in a 1-year trial .
  • no medication or a stable dose of maintenance medication (i.e. mesalamine or sulfasalazine) for at least one month prior to enrollment.
  • If taking maintenance medication: an increase in dose will be considered a relapse
  • If taking no medication: initiation of any medication will be considered a relapse

Exclusion Criteria:

  • active disease
  • daily rectal bleeding for past 7 days
  • Mayo Score > 2, any subscale > 1
  • PGA score >0
  • history of severe or fulminant UC
  • most recent flare included > 6 bloody stools a day
  • history of of toxicity including fever, tachycardia, anemia or an elevated Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) ∙ history of continuous bleeding, blood transfusion requirement, abdominal tenderness and distension, and colonic dilation on abdominal plain films
  • other gastrointestinal conditions
  • Crohn's Disease (CD)
  • short-bowel syndrome
  • celiac sprue
  • irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
  • renal or hepatic disease
  • positive stool exam (bacteria, ova, parasites)
  • C-difficile
  • history of colon resection
  • steroid-dependent, patients taking oral steroids within the past 30 days, topical steroids within the past week, quit smoking in the past 30 days given the known effects of smoking cessation on UC disease flare 23.
  • contraindications for hypnotherapy
  • unresolved history of physical or sexual abuse
  • a current or past dissociative disorder (i.e. Borderline PD, PTSD)
  • history of psychosis (including mania)
  • history of psychiatric hospitalization, including for self-harm or SI/HI
  • current substance abuse
  • severe psychiatric disorder
  • patients who are resistant to hypnosis as a result of religious or moral beliefs or any other reason

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Placebo Comparator: Standard care
8 weeks of standard of care
Other Names:
  • SC
Active Comparator: Hypnotherapy
8 weeks of gut-directed hypnotherapy
Other Names:
  • HYP
Placebo Comparator: Mind Body Therapy
8 weeks of mind-body therapy
Other Names:
  • MB

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
feasibility
Time Frame: 52 weeks
52 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Estimated effect sizes
Time Frame: 52 weeks
52 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Laurie Keefer, PhD, Northwestern University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

July 1, 2007

Primary Completion (Actual)

November 1, 2011

Study Completion (Actual)

June 1, 2012

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

November 25, 2008

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 25, 2008

First Posted (Estimate)

November 26, 2008

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

April 2, 2014

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 1, 2014

Last Verified

April 1, 2014

More Information

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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