Virtual walking program to reduce chronic neuropathic pain after spinal cord injury

Is this trial a fit for you?

A plain-English reading of the study's rules. Only the study team can confirm whether you qualify.

What this trial studies

This single-center randomized interventional trial at the Schweizer Paraplegiker Zentrum in Nottwil will compare virtual walking delivered from different visual perspectives to a sham virtual walking condition in adults with chronic neuropathic pain after spinal cord injury. Participants aged 18–75 with traumatic or non‑traumatic SCI at least six months earlier and neuropathic pain of at least 4/10 will be randomized to receive virtual walking sessions or a sham intervention over a defined training period. Outcomes include changes in pain intensity and quality of life, and mechanistic measures such as quantitative sensory testing (QST) and contact heat-evoked potentials (CHEPs) to probe sensory and cortical changes. People who can walk more than five minutes without aids, have serious uncontrolled psychiatric conditions, or are pregnant will be excluded.

Why it matters

Who can join: the full rules

Inclusion Criteria:

* Sufficient knowledge of German language to understand the instructions, assessments and to fill in questionnaires.
* Age ≥ 18y, ≤ 75y
* Chronic traumatic or non-traumatic SCI (\>6 month after SCI) with an SCI severity grade AIS A, B, C or D
* At or below level spinal cord injury neuropathic pain on trunk or lower extremities diagnosed by a neurologist following the ISCIP classification (Bryce et al., 2012) of at least 4/10 intensity on a NRS (Langford et al., 2023)
* Ability to draw with a pen

Exclusion Criteria:

* \- Serious psychiatric disorders, which are accompanied by imminent or current acute harm to oneself or others, or which require inpatient psychiatric treatment for other reasons, or other indications of a foreseeable, seriously harmful effect of participation in the study based on the clinical impression from the psychological screening interview
* Participants with a walking ability more than 5 minutes without walking aids
* Pregnancy (anamnestic) in women of child-bearing age (18-49 years)
* Known epilepsy
* neurological disorders (multiple sclerosis, ALS, Guillan-Barré Syndrome, congenital disorders, polyneuropathy)

Where it's running

• Schweizer Paraplegiker Zentrum Nottwil
  Nottwil, Canton of Lucerne, Switzerland Recruiting

Study contacts

• Principal investigator: Gunther Landmann, KD Dr. med. — Schweizer Paraplegiker Zentrum Nottwil
• Study coordinator: Karina Ottiger, MAS
• Email: karina.ottiger@paraplegie.ch
• Phone: +41419394900

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How to take part

1. Review the eligibility criteria above with your treating physician.
2. Check the official listing on ClinicalTrials.gov for the latest contact details and recruitment status.
3. Contact the study coordinator or principal investigator to ask for pre-screening. Pre-screening is free and never obligates you to enroll.