Treating Chronic Pain in Gulf War Illness

May 29, 2020 updated by: Peter Bayley, Palo Alto Veterans Institute for Research

A Multimodal Evaluation of the Comparative Efficacy of Yoga Versus a Patient Centered Support Group for Treating Chronic Pain in Gulf War Illness

The purpose of this study is to determine whether yoga is effective for the treatment of chronic pain in Gulf War Illness.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Background:

Many military personnel who participated in the Gulf War in 1990-1991 reported negative health consequences subsequent to their deployment. The most prevalent of these health consequences involves a triad of symptoms that include fatigue, pain and cognitive disturbances, commonly referred to as "Gulf War Illness" (GWI). No clear, unifying patho-physiological disease process or effective treatment has yet been identified for GWI. Results from a diverse spectrum of research studies support the view that veterans with GWI are medically ill, but the physiological abnormalities that contribute to their illness are not currently well understood nor sufficiently treated by conventional medicine. While the cause of GWI remains unknown, a potential link between GWI and autonomic nervous system (ANS) dysregulation has been suggested.

Yoga has been suggested to exert its therapeutic effects through adjusting imbalances in the ANS. In addition, yoga has been shown to be clinically effective in treating many of the physical symptoms typically found in GWI, including chronic pain and fatigue. As chronic pain is perhaps the most prevalent and debilitating symptom of GWI, we propose to target pain. Significantly for this application, no improvements in pain have yet been reported in any clinical trial involving GWI. Furthermore, no published studies have investigated yoga as an intervention in GWI.

Objectives:

The primary objective is to investigate yoga for the treatment of chronic pain in veterans with GWI. A secondary objective is to provide veterans with skills in yoga breathing, postures, and meditation that can be used to promote health and well-being.

Hypothesis 1 (primary):

  1. The subjective experience of pain, as measured by the Brief Pain Inventory-Short Form, will be reduced at end of treatment in the group given a 10-week yoga treatment program, compared to a pain support group (control).
  2. This effect will be sustained across time and will be found at the end of the 24-week post-treatment follow-up.

Hypothesis 2 (secondary):

Yoga will have a beneficial effect on general well-being; thus, compared to the control group, the yoga treatment group will show benefits across a broad range of measures, including quality of life, fatigue, and medication use.

Specific Aims:

  1. To assess the efficacy of yoga in reducing chronic pain and determine if the health-related benefits of yoga persist after termination of the treatment program.
  2. To obtain symptom-based outcome measures for veterans with GWI (before and after randomization) to assess pain, fatigue, physical functional status and quality of life.

Study Design:

The intervention to be tested is a 10-week yoga treatment program that has been specially designed for the treatment of chronic pain, as experienced by veterans with GWI. One hundred patients will be randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups: group yoga or a pain management wellness group (control). The control group has been carefully designed to control for many features of a yoga intervention. Patients in both groups will attend weekly classes for 10 weeks, followed by 6 months of follow up. Monitoring will include periodic measures of pain, fatigue, quality of life, and ANS function.

Impact:

Despite increasing demand from veterans for yoga and other forms of complementary and alternative treatments, the provision of yoga in veteran healthcare remains sparse. This is due, in large part, to a lack of randomized clinical trials capable of demonstrating the efficacy and safety of yoga for the treatment of conditions such as GWI. Such a demonstration would strengthen the case to offer yoga as a widely-available treatment for pain in GWI and would help promote yoga as part of integrative healthcare. This treatment trial is designed to begin to determine potential mechanisms of pain maintenance in GWI. If yoga leads to improvement in pain outcome, this would support performing a larger clinical trial of yoga for treating pain and other symptoms of GWI.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

75

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

  • United States
    • California
      • Palo Alto, California, United States, 94304
        • VA Palo Alto Health Care System

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

42 years to 85 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Served in the military in 1990-1991, regardless of deployment.
  • History of chronic pain.
  • Able to attend weekly visits at the study center for 10 weeks.
  • If on a psychotropic medication, the regimen will be stable for at least 4 weeks, prior to entry in the study.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Participation in another clinical trial.
  • Unable to visit the study center.
  • Unable to stand or walk.

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: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Yoga Group
Postures, meditation, breathing exercises
Behavioral: Yoga Group
A 10-week yoga course designed to treat pain.
Active Comparator: Pain Management Wellness Group
Behavioral medicine
Behavioral: Pain Management Wellness Group
A 10-week behavioral therapy course designed to treat pain.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Pain (Brief Pain Inventory - Short Form) - Pain Severity
Time Frame: Week 10 minus Week 0
Model - estimated change in the Pain Severity subscale of the Brief Pain Inventory - Short Form from baseline to end of treatment. The subscale's minimum score is 0; maximum is 10; more negative change scores indicate greater improvement from baseline to end of treatment
Week 10 minus Week 0
Pain (Brief Pain Inventory - Short Form) - Pain Interference
Time Frame: Week 10 minus Week 0
Model - estimated change in the Pain Interference subscale of the Brief Pain Inventory - Short Form from baseline to end of treatment. The subscale's minimum score is 0; maximum is 10; more negative change scores indicate greater improvement from baseline to end of treatment.
Week 10 minus Week 0

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Fatigue (6-Minute Walk Test)
Time Frame: Week 0, Week 10
Increase from baseline to end of treatment in distance walked during 6-Minute Walk Test. Greater values indicate more increase and therefore a more positive outcome.
Week 0, Week 10
Change in Number of Participants Who Used Analgesic Medication
Time Frame: Week 0, Week 10
Change in number of participants who self-reported use of analgesic medication(s) from Week 0 to Week 10.
Week 0, Week 10
Change in Number of Participants Who Used Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs
Time Frame: Week 0, Week 10
Change in number of participants who self-reported use of Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drug(s) from Week 0 to Week 10.
Week 0, Week 10
Change in Number of Participants Who Used Opiate Medication
Time Frame: Week 0, Week 10
Change in number of participants who self-reported use of Opiate Medication(s) from Week 0 to Week 10.
Week 0, Week 10

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Palo Alto Veterans Institute for Research

Collaborators

United States Department of Defense

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Peter Bayley, PhD, VA Palo Alto Heath Care System

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.

General Publications

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 (Actual)

June 1, 2015

Primary Completion (Actual)

March 1, 2018

Study Completion (Actual)

March 1, 2018

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 26, 2015

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 3, 2015

First Posted (Estimate)

March 4, 2015

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

June 11, 2020

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 29, 2020

Last Verified

May 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • BAY0001AGG
  • W81XWH-14-1-0615 (Other Grant/Funding Number: Department of Defense)

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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