Contemporary clinical trials
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Contemp Clin Trials · May 2016
Randomized Controlled TrialIntegrating palliative care into self-management of breast cancer: Protocol for a pilot randomized controlled trial.
Despite evidence that palliative care increases quality and length of life, many patients and families remain uninformed about its nature and benefits. The purpose of this study is to test a psycho-educational intervention, Managing Cancer Care: A Personal Guide (MCC), intended to improve breast cancer patients' knowledge of palliative care and to facilitate its timely integration into cancer self-management. ⋯ This study will inform a large scale trial of MCC. It is challenging for patients with breast cancer, their family caregivers, and providers to make choices that include palliation alone or in combination with potentially curative treatment. MCC may help address this challenge by giving patients the information, skills, and confidence to better self-manage breast cancer. Results may help to establish palliative care as a mainstay of self-management interventions targeting serious illness.
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Contemp Clin Trials · May 2016
Randomized Controlled TrialYoga for veterans with chronic low back pain: Design and methods of a randomized clinical trial.
Chronic low back pain (CLBP) afflicts millions of people worldwide, with particularly high prevalence in military veterans. Many treatment options exist for CLBP, but most have limited effectiveness and some have significant side effects. In general populations with CLBP, yoga has been shown to improve health outcomes with few side effects. ⋯ Assessments will be conducted at baseline, 6-weeks, 12-weeks, and 6-months. All randomized participants will be included in intention-to-treat analyses. Study results will provide much needed evidence on the feasibility and effectiveness of yoga as a therapeutic modality for the treatment of CLBP in US military veterans.
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Contemp Clin Trials · May 2016
Randomized Controlled TrialThe SOMATICS collaborative: Introduction to a National Institute on Drug Abuse cooperative study of pharmacotherapy for opioid treatment in criminal justice settings.
Among the nearly 750,000 inmates in U.S. jails, 12% report using opioids regularly, 8% report use in the month prior to their offense, and 4% report use at the time of their offense. Although ample evidence exists that medications effectively treat Opiate Use Disorder (OUD) in the community, strong evidence is lacking in jail settings. The general lack of medications for OUD in jail settings may place persons suffering from OUD at high risk for relapse to drug use and overdose following release from jail. ⋯ Conducting drug abuse research during incarceration is challenging and study designs with data harmonization across different sites can increase the potential value of research to develop effective treatments for individuals in jail with OUD.
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Contemp Clin Trials · Mar 2016
Randomized Controlled TrialA randomized controlled trial on the benefits and respiratory adverse effects of morphine for refractory dyspnea in patients with COPD: Protocol of the MORDYC study.
Dyspnea is one of the most reported symptoms of patients with advanced Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and is often undertreated. Morphine has proven to be an effective treatment for dyspnea and is recommended in clinical practice guidelines, but questions concerning benefits and respiratory adverse effects remain. This study primarily evaluates the impact of oral sustained release morphine (morphine SR) on health-related quality of life and respiratory adverse effects in patients with COPD. ⋯ The intervention and control group will be compared using uni- and multivariate regression analysis and logistic regression analysis. Finally, an economic evaluation will be performed from a societal and healthcare perspective. The current manuscript describes the rationale and methods of this study and provides an outline of the possible strengths, weaknesses and clinical consequences.
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Contemp Clin Trials · Mar 2016
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter StudyLessons learned from a clinical trial: Design, rationale, and insights from The Cardiovascular Improvements with Minute Ventilation-targeted Adaptive Sero-Ventilation (ASV) Therapy in Heart Failure (CAT-HF) Study.
The CAT-HF Study was designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of minute ventilation-targeted adaptive servo-ventilation (MV-ASV) during sleep in addition to optimized medical therapy (active therapy) versus optimized medical therapy alone (usual care) at 6 months, initiated in patients after hospitalization for acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF). This paper outlines the rationale, design and information learned at the time of study discontinuation. ⋯ The CAT-HF study was designed to assess the efficacy and safety of MV ASV treatment in patients after hospitalization for ADHF, but was stopped early due to safety concerns in HF patients with (LVEF)≤45% and predominant central sleep apnea.