Chronic low back pain — lasting more than three months — is the leading cause of disability worldwide and has been fueled partly by overprescription of opioids that provide limited long-term benefit. The research landscape is shifting toward understanding the spine, nerves, and brain together rather than treating the back in isolation.
What's actually going on in research
Biologics targeting nerve growth factor and IL-17 are in trials for specific back pain subtypes including modic changes and inflammatory back pain. Non-invasive and minimally invasive neuromodulation approaches — including transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, spinal cord stimulation, and dorsal root ganglion stimulation — are being compared in large trials. Multidisciplinary pain rehabilitation programs and targeted psychological therapies are showing robust results and being delivered digitally to reach more patients.
NGF inhibitors
Nerve growth factor inhibitors reduce chronic back pain significantly in trials targeting discogenic and osteoarthritis-related low back pain, and are being re-evaluated at doses that minimize side effects.
Spinal cord stimulation
Newer closed-loop spinal cord stimulators that continuously adapt to nerve signals are being compared with open-loop devices and pain medications for chronic low back pain.
Biopsychosocial rehabilitation
Programs addressing both the physical and psychological drivers of chronic back pain — including acceptance-based therapy and graded activity — show sustained pain and function improvements.
What to know before you search
Eligibility requires pain duration of at least 3 months, specific pain characteristics or imaging findings, prior treatment failure, and often exclusion of inflammatory arthritis.
What types of trials are currently open
- Drug trials — Testing non-opioid medications including NGF inhibitors, anti-inflammatories, and nerve-targeted drugs.
- Neuromodulation trials — Comparing spinal cord stimulation, DRG stimulation, and TENS for chronic low back pain.
- Injection and procedure trials — Evaluating epidural steroid injections, radiofrequency ablation, and intradiscal therapies.
- Behavioral and rehabilitation trials — Testing multidisciplinary programs combining physical therapy, psychology, and education.
- Surgical trials — Comparing spinal fusion, disc replacement, and decompression for specific anatomic causes.
Recently added Chronic Low Back Pain trials
Trial to Test the Efficacy of Using Magnetic Fields to Stimulate the Back to Treat Chronic Lower Back Pain.
The goal of this study is to see if a new way to treat back pain without the use of medications is effective. We plan use Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), a wand-like device, to excite the nerves of people with lower back pain to see if we can decrease pain and improve quality of life. This study will have two groups and randomly assign participants to a group. One group will have their back nerves stimulated with the TMS device and the other group will not. Participants will also need to do back exercises at home once a day, and complete questionnaires at each visit before and after each treatment. The total time commitment will be 5 to10 visits with one visit occurring each weekday and each visit lasting up to 30 minutes.
Comparison of High-Intensity Interval Training With Moderate-Intensity Continuous Training in Chronic Non-Specific Low Back Pain Patients
The goal of this clinical trial is to compare the HIIT with MICT in chronic non-specific low back pain patients. The main questions it aims to answer are: * The broad aim of the study is to compare HIIT with MICT in pain reduction in chronic non-specific low back pain patients. * The purpose of this research is to compare HIIT with MICT on disability and quality of life among chronic non-specific low back pain patients. * It also attempts to investigate the relationship between the baseline attributes and outcome variables. Researcher will compare the HIIT to MICT to see the effects on CNSLBP Participants will be: * Allocated to HIIT or MICT group for 6 weeks. * Assessed pre and post intervention. * Continuously monitored during treatment sessions.
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