A Randomized-controlled Clinical Trial of Hypnosis Versus Open Label Placebo for Chronic Neuropathic Pain With an Investigation of Neuro-cognitive Dysfunctions as Maintaining Factors and Therapeutic Targets
The objective of the study is to a) assess the presence of a maladaptive stress response, a decreased pain modulation and any cognitive impairment in patients with chronic neuropathic pain in comparison to healthy controls. and b) evaluate the efficacy of a treatment of hypnosis and of an open label placebo on these neuro-cognitive factors and on clinical pain. This will be done through a) a prospective observational comparative study of patients (base line measures) with Healthy Controls (HC) and b) an Open label; randomised, hypnosis vs. open label placebo (OLP) vs. treatment as usual control design; with a second phase of exploratory cross-over.
• aged 18-90 years,
• interested in complementary medicine
• peripheral neuropathic pain lasting for more than 6 months,
• pain intensity of at least 3/10 VAS over the last two weeks
• matching patients for age and gender,
• no chronic pain condition no acute pain condition requiring daily intake of analgesics,
• no acute medical or psychiatric condition.