PEMF Therapy to Treat Lingering Symptoms of Lyme Disease After Treatment With Antibiotics (PEMF)

April 5, 2022 updated by: Kasey Phifer

Pulsed ElectroMagnetic Field Therapy With Square Wave Forms and Artificial Intelligence Within the Software Interface for Individualised, Bespoke Bio-Electromagnetic Therapy to Treat Symptoms of Chronic Lyme Disease Remaining After Antibiotics Treatment

Overview

PEMF Therapy for relief or reduction of lingering symptoms after antibiotic treatment of Lyme disease of participants in the UK.

Symptoms monitored:

Muscle ache, myalgia, muscle pain that is acutely located and/or 'wandering' (different location on different days) Aching joints Headache Fatigue, general tiredness, loss of energy, general exhaustion Mild, recurrent fever and/or chills occurring regularly Lack of oxygen in blood, feelings of 'air hunger', too high carbon dioxide levels in blood

Study Overview

Detailed Description

Hypothesis Period measured and observed: 18 months (Includes before treatment, during the 4-8 weeks of treatment and post treatment)

Control Group Control Group symptoms will remain the same or increase (deteriorate or worsen) by 10-20% over the period observed.

The Control Group is not asked to nor required to abstain from any other forms of treatment during the 10 month observational period; Persons in the Control Group are free to - but not encouraged to - pursue holistic, complementary and mainstream medicine for their symptoms related to contraction of Lyme Disease and any other illness that may arise.

In the event of receiving treatment or taking medicine, this information is to be passed along for data collection in the regular surveys. This will be taken into consideration when evaluating the results of the trial and hypothesis.

Test Group Test Group symptoms will improve (be reduced or eliminated) by 50-75% over the period observed; In particular, the largest improvement will be achieved during the 8 weeks of treatment. After treatment, there may be a slight improvement of symptoms, however, the improvement achieved during treatment is expected to remain the same over the next 7.5 months following treatment with the exception of re-infection or contraction of a different disease or illness.

The Test Group is not asked to nor required to abstain from any other forms of treatment during the 10 month observational period; Persons in the Control Group are free to - but not encouraged to - pursue holistic, complementary and mainstream medicine for their symptoms related to contraction of Lyme Disease and any other illness that may arise.

In the event of receiving treatment or taking medicine, this information is to be passed along for data collection in the regular surveys. This will be taken into consideration when evaluating the results of the trial and hypothesis.

Measurement (What the Investigator is Measuring and Observing in Response to Testing) and Weighting

Measurement: 1 to 100 Scale Worsening/decline or improvement/reduction of symptoms will be measured by the information collected in the surveys. Answers to questions are given subjectively by the participants themselves on a scale of 1 to 100, with 1 being the worst possible or imaginable and 100 being the best possible or imaginable. For example, the worst imaginable answer of "1" to the question of mobility/movement would be in the event that the participant is in a wheelchair or coma. Being confined to a wheelchair is certainly more mobile than lying in a comatose state, however, the answers to each question are subjective and so the participant might believe that a wheelchair would be the worst measure of mobility for him or her.

Weighting of Answers To weight the improvement or decline respectively for each participant, the average of the first three and last three surveys will be taken. This is to rule out any possible statistical outliers or anomalies due to the participant possibly having a 'bad day' or coincidental other illness such as a head cold.

Example Question:

Rate overall energy level on a scale of 1 to 100, where 1 is the lowest imaginable and 100 is the best, pre-Lyme Disease level possible.

Example Answers:

Participant A First survey: 45 Second survey: 40 Third survey: 48 25th survey (third to last): 80 26th survey (second to last): 83 27th survey (last or final): 80

Weighting here would be calculated in the following way:

Starting point or "zero point" is the average of the first three surveys

  • ( 45 + 40 + 48 ) / 3 = 44.33 Ending point is the average of the last three surveys
  • ( 80 + 83 + 80 ) / 3 = 81 An improvement of 100% for this participant would be from 44.33 at the starting point up to 100 at the ending point, what is to be considered a full recovery or full elimination of symptoms. The breadth of full recovery therefore contains a different amount of scala numbers for each participant, because a full recovery is based individually on each participant. This is to avoid an increase or decrease of more than 100%.

Using this example:

No improvement would be from 44.33 to [44-44.49], an increase of approximately 0 = 0% Full recovery would be from 44.33 to 100, an increase of 55.67 = 100% Amount of improvement in the example is from 44.33 to 81, an increase of 36.67; It is then calculated 36.67 / 55.67 = 68.9%

Participant B (Example Answers) First survey: 30 Second survey: 25 Third survey: 25 25th survey (third to last): 80 26th survey (second to last): 83 27th survey (last or final): 80

Weighting here would be calculated in the following way:

Starting point or "zero point" is the average of the first three surveys

  • ( 30 + 25 + 25 ) / 3 = 26.67 Ending point is the average of the last three surveys
  • ( 80 + 83 + 80 ) / 3 = 81 An improvement of 100% for this participant would be from 26.67 at the starting point up to 100 at the ending point, what is to be considered a full recovery or full elimination of symptoms.

Using this example:

No improvement would be from 26.67 to [26.5-27], an increase of approximately 0 = 0% Full recovery would be from 26.67 to 100, an increase of 73.33 = 100% Amount of improvement in the example is from 26.67 to 81, an increase of 54.33; It is then calculated 54.33 / 73.33 = 74.1%

More information can be found published on the investigator's website: https://biofeedbackcentrebristol.co.uk/lyme-disease-clinical-trial/

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

20

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

      • Bristol, United Kingdom, BS8 1LR
        • The Bristol Centre for Biofeedback
      • Weston, United Kingdom, BS24 9AY
        • The National Centre for ElectroMagnetic Therapies CIC

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

12 years and older (Child, Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Diagnosis from GP confirming Lyme disease and/or
  • Blood test confirming Lyme disease and/or
  • Symptoms that correlate to Lyme disease without diagnosis from GP. This is called "self diagnosis" and because 80% of the trial is focused on treating symptoms and not the spirochetes, bacteria or small cysts of Lyme disease, the results are expected to be largely the same

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Persons currently undergoing antibiotic treatment for Lyme or other conditions
  • Persons who were prescribed antibiotics but did not or could not take them

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: PEMF Therapy
Pulsed ElectroMagnetic Field Therapy using square wave forms. In addition to set, pre-defined frequencies to aid the body's own immune system, the Artificial Intelligence incorporated into the software used will suggest a variety of frequencies to be administered during treatment. Due to the software's selection, these recommendations or selections from the software will likely be different in each treatment session.
Manufactured by QX World Ltd. in Budapest, Hungary
Other Names:
  • INDIGO, QXCI, QUEX S, QUEX ED
No Intervention: Control
Control group will not receive treatment.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Overall Energy Levels
Time Frame: 18 months
This is inversely describing fatigue, chronic fatigue and exhaustion which is a common symptom of Lyme Disease.
18 months
Myalgia
Time Frame: 18 months
This will be described to participants in an easy-to-understand 'layman' terminology. Words here include e.g. muscle ache, soreness of muscles.
18 months
Joint stiffness
Time Frame: 18 months
Stiffness, soreness and lack of range of motion in any and all joints
18 months
Depression
Time Frame: 18 months
This is measuring the participant's own subjective feelings of mood and depression, not a clinical diagnosis.
18 months
Fever/Chills
Time Frame: 18 months
mild, recurrent fever is a common symptom of Lyme Disease. Temperature will be measured by the participants themselves should they suffer from this.
18 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Ability to Breathe
Time Frame: 18 months
'Air Hunger' or the feeling of not getting enough oxygen when breathing
18 months
Encephalitis
Time Frame: 18 months
Inflammation of the brain and/or spinal cord measured using the scan built into the software to confirm whether any is present in absence of medical diagnosis. Patients will report on symptoms of encephalitis, i.e. confusion, seizures, difficulty speaking, sudden changes in behaviour
18 months
Brain Fog
Time Frame: 18 months
This is most likely due to hormone imbalance which results in depression, insomnia, confusion and other symptoms.
18 months
Nerve pain / damage
Time Frame: 18 months
damage to the nerves resulting in loss of fine or gross motor skills, shooting pains along nerves
18 months

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

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.

Helpful Links

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 7, 2020

Primary Completion (Actual)

December 4, 2020

Study Completion (Actual)

September 28, 2021

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 17, 2020

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 5, 2020

First Posted (Actual)

October 6, 2020

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

April 13, 2022

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 5, 2022

Last Verified

April 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

Yes

IPD Plan Description

Via spreadsheet and cloud sharing

IPD Sharing Time Frame

The data will remain permanently available. Only participant personal data is protected under GDPR and will need special written consent prior to sharing. Otherwise, all methodology, questions, protocol and forms are being made available online.

IPD Sharing Access Criteria

none, no login necessary. Contact the investigator if data protected under GDPR is desired, such as participants' dates of birth, names and nationalities (countries of birth)

IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type

  • Study Protocol
  • Statistical Analysis Plan (SAP)
  • Informed Consent Form (ICF)
  • Clinical Study Report (CSR)
  • Analytic Code

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

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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