Laterality Training and Pain Drawings
For patients and families
In plain language
An automatic summary of structured registry data. It is an orientation aid, not a substitute for the official protocol or a physician assessment.
- What is being studied
- The protocol lists: Laterality Training, Sham (No Treatment).
- Who it may be relevant to
- Registry conditions: Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain, Chronic Shoulder Pain, Chronic Knee Pain. Basic parameters: from 18 years · All.
- What needs checking
- Age, condition and sex are only basic indicators. Prior treatment, laboratory values and other mandatory requirements appear in the eligibility criteria below.
- Where it takes place
- United States
- Next step
- Save the trial, show it to the treating physician, and confirm current recruitment with the study center. Costs, documents and travel →
Unsure about the terms? Read our patient guide →
Official title
Laterality Training and Pain Drawings: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Overview
The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if laterality training (a type of brain-based therapy) can help reduce pain and change how people with chronic musculoskeletal pain experience and describe their pain. The study will focus on adults with shoulder or knee pain lasting longer than 6 months. The main questions it aims to answer are: Does laterality training lead to a reduction in self-reported pain levels? Does laterality training reduce the area of the body that participants indicate as painful in their pain drawings? Does laterality training improve accuracy and speed in left/right judgment tasks? Researchers will compare participants who complete laterality training to those who complete a non-therapeutic cognitive task (a word puzzle) to see if laterality training changes pain drawings and improves pain outcomes. Participants will: Complete a pre-intervention assessment including pain ratings, pain drawings, and a left/right judgment test Be randomly assigned to one of two groups: Intervention group: Complete 5 one-minute sessions of laterality training using a tablet-based app called Recognise™, identifying left or right hand/foot images depending on the location of their pain Control group: Complete a 10-minute crossword puzzle activity (non-therapeutic) Complete the same assessments after the activity (pain ratings, pain drawings, left/right judgment test) The study will take place at two outpatient physical therapy clinics. Participation involves a single session lasting approximately 30-45 minutes. There is no cost to participate, and no compensation is provided. Participation is voluntary, and all personal data will be kept confidential. This research will help determine whether laterality training, a non-invasive brain-based technique, can reduce pain and improve quality of life in people with long-standing musculoskeletal pain.
Interventions
- Behavioral Laterality Training
Participants complete a structured laterality training session using a tablet-based application that presents images of hands or feet. Depending on their pain location (shoulder or knee), participants identify whether each image shows a left or right body part. The session consists of 5 one-minute training bouts with 60-second rest intervals between each. The task is designed to engage and retrain cortical body maps associated with the painful region, based on principles of graded motor imagery. - Other Sham (No Treatment)
Participants in this arm will complete a non-therapeutic cognitive activity by working independently on a standard word-based crossword puzzle for 10 minutes. This task is designed to match the duration and engagement level of the laterality training without influencing sensorimotor processing or cortical body maps. It serves as a sham comparator to help isolate the specific effects of the laterality training intervention.
Primary outcome measures
- Change in Pain Drawing Area [Time frame: Baseline and post-intervention (approximately 15 minutes after Baseline)]
Secondary outcome measures (2)
- Change in Left/Right Judgment Accuracy and Reaction Time [Time frame: Baseline and post-intervention (approximately 15 minutes after Baseline)]
- Change in Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS) [Time frame: Baseline and post-intervention (approximately 15 minutes after Baseline)]
Eligibility criteria
Inclusion criteria
- Adults aged 18 years or older
- Diagnosis of chronic shoulder or knee pain lasting more than 6 months
- Able to read and understand English
- Willing to provide written informed consent
Exclusion criteria
- Visual impairments that would interfere with laterality training (e.g., blindness or significant difficulty with vision)
- Previous participation in laterality (left/right discrimination) training
- Unwilling or unable to participate in the study procedures
Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.
Healthy volunteers: No
Study design
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Model
- Parallel assignment
- Masking
- Single blind
- Primary purpose
- Treatment
Study locations
United States · 2 centers
- Rock Valley Physical Therapy — Moline
- Rock Valley Physical Therapy — Davenport
Publications
- Sanders NW, Mann NH 3rd, Spengler DM. Pain drawing scoring is not improved by inclusion of patient-reported pain sensation. Spine (Phila Pa 1976). 2006 Nov 1;31(23):2735-41; discussion 2742-3. doi: 10.1097/01.brs.0000244674.99258.f9. PMID 17077744
- Matthews M, Rathleff MS, Vicenzino B, Boudreau SA. Capturing patient-reported area of knee pain: a concurrent validity study using digital technology in patients with patellofemoral pain. PeerJ. 2018 Mar 8;6:e4406. doi: 10.7717/peerj.4406. eCollection 2018. PMID 29568700
- Louw A, Farrell K, Zimney K, et al. Pain and Decreased Range of Motion in Knees and Shoulders: A Brief Sensory Remapping Intervention. Pain and Rehabilitation. 2017;Summer(43):20-30.
- Bowering KJ, O'Connell NE, Tabor A, Catley MJ, Leake HB, Moseley GL, Stanton TR. The effects of graded motor imagery and its components on chronic pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Pain. 2013 Jan;14(1):3-13. doi: 10.1016/j.jpain.2012.09.007. Epub 2012 Nov 15. PMID 23158879
- Gurudut P, Godse AN. Effectiveness of graded motor imagery in subjects with frozen shoulder: a pilot randomized controlled trial. Korean J Pain. 2022 Apr 1;35(2):152-159. doi: 10.3344/kjp.2022.35.2.152. PMID 35354678
Identifiers
NCT: NCT07078084 · 5604202539