Sickle Cell DiseasePhase 2NCT01954927
Pain Management in Children and Young Adults With Sickle Cell Disease
A Phase 2 study testing Gabapentin in people with Sickle Cell Disease, run by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital at 1 site in United States.
Trial summary
This is a phase II double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial evaluating the effect of gabapentin when added to standard pain management for patients with sickle cell disease experiencing acute pain crisis in the ambulatory care setting. Sickle cell pain is different for every patient. Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 1 year to 20 years
- Conditions the study is for
- Sickle Cell Disease
- What is being tested?
- Gabapentin
- Type of treatment
- Pill or oral medicine
- Could I receive a placebo?
- Yes, some participants may receive a placebo
- How many people
- 90 participants
- Where
- 1 siteUnited States
- Study dates
- 7 Oct 2013to 3 Jan 2018
- Phase
- Phase 2
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 1 year to 20 years
- All sexes
- No healthy volunteers
- Child, Adult
Who may be able to join
- Participant must have sickle cell disease (any genotype) documented in the St. Jude medical record.
- Participant must be seeking care for acute vaso-occlusive pain at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
- Participant age must be ≥1 year and <21 years.
Who cannot join
- Prior randomization in this study.
- Mild pain (score <4) or pain for which treatment with opioid is not indicated.
- Pregnant or lactating female.
- Decreased glomerular filtration rate (GFT) (<60ml/min/1.73m^2) as estimated by the revised Schwartz equation.
- Current treatment with gabapentinoid drugs (gabapentin or pregabalin).
- Known seizure disorder.
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- Current treatment with antiepileptic agents.
- Pain in combination with other clinical symptoms that require additional interventions, including fever with focus, acute chest syndrome, acute injury, or splenic sequestration.
- Allergy to gabapentin.
- Current participation in another research study with an investigational new drug/device (IND/IDE) agent.
- Inability or unwillingness of research participant or legal guardian/representative to give written informed consent.
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country.
United States1 site
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Memphis, Tennessee, 38105
About this study
Official title: Pain Management of Vaso-Occlusive Crisis in Children and Young Adults With Sickle Cell Disease
This is a phase II double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial evaluating the effect of gabapentin when added to standard pain management for patients with sickle cell disease experiencing acute pain crisis in the ambulatory care setting.
Sickle cell pain is different for every patient. Some patients get complete relief from routine pain medicines, and others need more time or more doses of pain medicines before the pain goes away completely. It is known that humans have many types of pain, including something called neuropathic pain. Neuropathic pain in other conditions (such as diabetes) has been treated successfully with a medicine called gabapentin. The investigators in this study suspect that some sickle cell pain is a combination of pain types. They would like to see if adding gabapentin to the usual pain medicines makes pain go away faster or more completely.
Read more
Primary Objective:
- To assess the analgesic efficacy of gabapentin vs. placebo for pain during vaso-occlusive crisis (VOC) in participants with sickle cell disease (SCD). A response to study drug will be defined by a decrease in pain score of ≥ 33% between presentation to the acute care setting and assessment at 3 hours post administration of study drug.
Secondary Objective:
- To compare the total morphine equivalent dose (mg/kg) used to control pain during VOC between presentation to the acute care setting and assessment at 3 hours post administration of study drug in the gabapentin vs. placebo groups.
Read the detailed description
Upon participant enrollment, study staff will randomize the participant to one of 2 possible treatment arms: a single dose of gabapentin or a single dose of placebo. Morphine or other opioid and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs will be available to both groups as needed for pain and will be administered according to the current standard of care for pain in VOC from the Department of Hematology at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (SJCRH). Randomization will be performed in the SJCRH pharmacy by a pharmacist. The randomization will be stratified by three age categories (1-3 years of age, 4-6 years, and 7 years or older) for which distinct pain assessment tools are applied and for 2 pain score categories at assessment at presentation (4-6 and 7-10, respectively). A block randomization with block sizes varying randomly between 4 and 6 will be used in each stratum.
Pain scores will be obtained at presentation to the acute care setting and 3 hours (± 15 minutes) post administration of study drug. Participants who were discharged will be contacted by study staff between 24 and 72 hours following administration of study drug to see if there have been any side effects. Patients who were admitted after administration of the study drug will be monitored through hospital record to determine if any unexpected events occurred. After this follow up, participation in the study is complete.
- Conditions
- Sickle Cell Disease
- Being tested
- Gabapentin, Placebo
- Keywords
- Pain control
- Medical subject headings
- Anemia, Sickle Cell, Agnosia
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
GabapentinDrug
Also called Neurontin(R)
Gabapentin is supplied as an oral suspension. Patients randomized to the gabapentin arm will receive a single dose of gabapentin as soon after enrollment as feasible. The gabapentin dose will be given orally and will be approximately 15 mg/kg with a maximum dose of 900 mg.
PlaceboDrug
Placebo will be prepared by the SJCRH pharmacy and will be similar in appearance, quantity and taste to the gabapentin drug. Patients randomized to the placebo arm will receive a single dose of placebo as soon after enrollment as feasible. The placebo dose will be given orally and will be approximately 15 mg/kg with a maximum dose of 900mg.
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Gabapentin | Active comparator | Patients will be randomized to receive one dose of gabapentin. Receives: Drug: Gabapentin |
| Placebo | Placebo comparator | Patients will be randomized to receive one dose of placebo. Receives: Drug: Placebo |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Number of Participants With Successful Pain Interventions by Arm Between Presentation and 3 Hours Post Administration of Study Drug
Pain scales used are the numerical rating system, the Faces Pain Scale, and the Faces, Legs, Arms, Cry and Consolability (FLACC) pain scale (for patients 7 years or older, ages 4-6 years, or less than 4 years, respectively). For each patient, if the reduction of the pain scores (0=no pain and 10=worst possible pain) between presentation to the acute care setting and 3 hours post administration of study drug is 33% or greater, then this patient will be defined as having a successful intervention. The proportions of successful interventions in the gabapentin and placebo groups will be estimated and compared using Z-test.
Measured: Baseline and 3 hours (±30 minutes) post administration of study drug. The 3-hour pain assessment time-period was extended for subjects that were sleep until the first available measurement.
Secondary outcomes (1)
Morphine Equivalent Doses Administered From Presentation to 3-hours Post Treatment With Gabapentin/Placebo
The equivalent dose of morphine in mg
Measured: The 3-hour pain assessment was the pain assessment closest in time to the 3-hour time and was typically within 30 minutes of target. The time period was extended for 12 patients that were sleeping.
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted7 Oct 2013 (estimated)
- Study start7 Oct 2013
- Primary completion3 Jan 2018
- Study completion3 Jan 2018
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Posted resultsParticipant flow, outcome measures and adverse events reported by the sponsor.
- Other trials for Sickle Cell DiseaseStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- More trials run by St. Jude Children's Research HospitalThe sponsor's other registered studies.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase 2
- Primary purpose
- Treatment
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Masking
- Quadruple blind
- Who is masked
- Participant, Care provider, Investigator, Outcomes assessor
- Enrolment
- 90 participants (actual)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- Scan | Design Foundation
- Responsible party
- Sponsor
- Investigators
- Doralina Anghelescu, MD, Principal investigator, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT01954927
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- PMVOC
- Status last verified
- Jul 2018
- First submitted
- 27 Sep 2013
- Last updated
- 2 Apr 2019
- Results posted
- Yes, on ClinicalTrials.gov
- Data monitoring committee
- No
- FDA-regulated drug
- Yes
- FDA-regulated device
- No