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Completed Phase 4 Interventional Results available

Placebo In Chronic Back Pain (Phase 2)

ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT02986334

Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT02986334. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.

ClinicalTrials.gov public records Last synced Sep 4, 2026, 7:58 PM EDT

Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.

Official title

Brain Mechanisms For Clinical Placebo in Chronic Pain: A Randomized Clinical Trial of Placebo, Active Treatment, and No Treatment in Chronic Back Pain

Brief summary

Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.

This study is designed to examine brain properties for placebo response in chronic back pain patients. The investigators have preliminary data indicating that, in blinded clinical trial studies with neutral instructions regarding treatment, chronic back pain (CBP) patients can be subdivided into placebo responders and non-responders, and these differences are PREDICTABLE a priori, by brain activity. The results imply that CBP placebo may have clinical utility and that its properties can be studied by human brain imaging techniques. In Phase I of the study, the investigators seek to identify brain imaging parameters that predict the propensity for the placebo response in an independent CBP cohort. In Phase II, the investigators will evaluate the interaction between placebo response and medication treatment in individuals stratified as placebo responders versus non-responders. This research is designed to critically assess the neurobiology of placebo analgesia for chronic pain in a partially-blind clinical trial.

Study identification

NCT ID
NCT02986334
Recruitment status
Completed
Study type
Interventional
Phase
Phase 4
Lead sponsor
Apkar Apkarian
Other
Enrollment
94 participants

Conditions and interventions

Interventions

Drug

Eligibility (public fields only)

Age range
18 Years to 75 Years
Sex
All
Healthy volunteers
Healthy volunteers not accepted

This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.

Study timeline

Start date
Jul 31, 2016
Primary completion
May 31, 2018
Completion
May 31, 2018
Last update posted
Nov 6, 2022

2016 – 2018

United States locations

U.S. sites
1
U.S. states
1
U.S. cities
1
Facility City State ZIP Site status
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Chicago Illinois 60611

Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.

About this trial record page

What this page shows
Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT02986334, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
What this page does not do
No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
Where the data comes from
Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
Last refresh
Last update posted Nov 6, 2022 · Synced Sep 4, 2026

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Open the official record

The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT02986334 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.

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