Effect of Sham Anti-inflammatory Diet on Inflammation After Spinal Cord Injury

January 13, 2023 updated by: Lawson Health Research Institute

Effect of a Sham Anti-inflammatory Diet on Inflammation and Participant Blinding in Spinal Cord Injury: A Pilot Study

This pilot study will evaluate the effects of a placebo anti-inflammatory diet in individuals with spinal cord injury. It is being performed to ensure that the placebo diet does not induce reductions in inflammation and also adequately conceals group allocation.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Anti-inflammatory diet is a novel treatment that may be beneficial for managing chronic inflammation and neuropathic pain (NP) after Spinal Cord Injury (SCI). NP is a common complication following SCI that significantly decreases quality of life. Treatment options are limited, and current treatments can have significant side effects. Those with SCI have identified a need for additional treatment options, particularly those that are not medications.

As pain is a subjective outcome, awareness of group allocation could influence treatment expectations and participant rated scores of neuropathic pain. It is therefore important to ensure that an adequate placebo intervention is utilized. This pilot study will assess whether the placebo diet to be used in an upcoming RCT provides sufficient group allocation concealment (i.e. ensure participants are unaware of whether they are on the anti-inflammatory diet or placebo diet). This pilot study will also assess whether the placebo diet is in fact inflammation neutral (ie. induces no reductions in inflammation).

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

16

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

  • Canada
    • Ontario
      • London, Ontario, Canada, N6C 5J1
        • Parkwood Institute

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 and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  1. Signed informed consent obtained prior to any study-related activities
  2. A spinal cord injury at least 6 months duration, nonprogressive for at least 6 months
  3. Dosing of other pain medications (NSAIDs, opioids, non-opioid analgesics, anti-epileptic drugs, antidepressants) should be stable for at least 1 month prior to study entry.

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Current infection of any kind.
  2. Presence of other neurologic conditions, medical conditions or pain that could confound the assessment of neuropathic pain after SCI
  3. Currently enrolled in another clinical trial
  4. Any other significant disease or disorder which, in the opinion of the investigator, may either put the patient at risk because of participation in the study, may influence the result of the study, or affect the patient's ability to participate in the study
  5. Following a physical examination, the patient has any abnormalities that, in the opinion of the investigator would prevent the patient from safe participation in the study

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: Triple

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Sham Comparator: Placebo Diet
Participants on the placebo diet will be given a meal plan and recipes by the study dietitian. The dietitian will assist in developing a diet that is isocaloric to the anti-inflammatory diet and healthy (for the sake of the participants' well-being, and to blind participants), while allowing many foods that are (counterintuitively) pro-inflammatory (e.g. whole wheat bread, white beans, oats, soy, eggplant, raspberries, pumpkin seeds, popcorn, etc). There are many counter-intuitive restrictions in the anti-inflammatory diet that we will be using (banned foods include white beans, soy, eggplant, oats, raspberries, strawberries, prunes, walnuts, cashews, soy milk. Allowed foods include maple syrup, honey, lean beef, lamb, brown rice, feta cheese, butter). Therefore, even fairly astute and educated participants may have trouble discerning which diet they are consuming (anti-inflammatory or placebo).
Other: Placebo Diet
The dietitian will assist in developing a diet that is isocaloric to the anti-inflammatory diet and healthy (for the sake of the participants' well-being, and to blind participants), while allowing many foods that are (counterintuitively) pro-inflammatory (e.g. whole wheat bread, white beans, oats, soy, eggplant, raspberries, pumpkin seeds, popcorn, etc). Occasional "cheat" foods are built into the placebo diet but with more pro-inflammatory options (e.g. two glasses of wine per week).
No Intervention: Non-dieting Control
Those in the non-dieting control condition will not be asked to alter their diet in any way.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
C-Reactive Protein
Time Frame: Baseline and Week-5 (post measures collected following 1-week group allocation period and 4-week intervention)
Change in plasma C-reactive protein from baseline to post intervention.
Baseline and Week-5 (post measures collected following 1-week group allocation period and 4-week intervention)
Diet Compliance
Time Frame: Week-5 (post measures collected following 1-week group allocation period and 4-week intervention)
Diet compliance will be assessed following the intervention. Compliance to the specific diet will be assessed by a detailed analysis of all diet records. Each food item will be categorized as either a "food to consume," a "food to avoid," or a "neutral food" based on the parameter of the diet participants who were instructed to follow. Food will also be categorized into servings in accordance with Canada's Food Guide. Therefore, compliance score will be based on standard servings of foods subjects were instructed to eat vs. foods they were instructed to avoid. To account for differences in total energy intake, compliance scores will be expressed as a ratio of the servings of foods to consume over the total servings of food (avoid + consume) multiplied by 100. The percent compliance will then be generated.
Week-5 (post measures collected following 1-week group allocation period and 4-week intervention)

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Lawson Health Research Institute

Collaborators

Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Eldon Loh, MD, Lawson Health Research Institute

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)

October 1, 2020

Primary Completion (Actual)

June 3, 2022

Study Completion (Actual)

June 3, 2022

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 10, 2020

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 12, 2020

First Posted (Actual)

February 17, 2020

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

January 16, 2023

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 13, 2023

Last Verified

January 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • AINP001

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

No

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

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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