Brain training meets acupuncture: a new hope for fibromyalgia pain?
NCT ID NCT06157866
First seen Jun 26, 2026 · Last updated Jun 27, 2026 · Updated 1 time
Summary
This study tests whether combining cognitive training with electroacupuncture can reduce pain in people with fibromyalgia. Researchers will use brain scans to see if the treatment improves how patient and clinician brains sync up. The trial enrolls 100 adults with fibromyalgia and aims to understand how non-drug therapies might work.
What this could mean
Our plain-language read of the trial. This is informational only, not medical advice or a prediction.
- Active substance
- electroacupuncture
- What this could lead to
- If successful, this could point toward a non-drug therapy that improves pain management for fibromyalgia by enhancing the patient-clinician connection.
- What could go wrong
- This is an early-stage study focused on brain imaging, not a proven treatment. The approach may not lead to lasting pain relief, and results may not apply to all patients.
This is an AI summary of the original study and may miss details. Read our disclaimer.
Study facts
What this study's own registry entry says, in plain language.
- Phase
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Not a phased trial
Phase numbers describe drug development. The registry uses this when they do not apply, as it does for trials of devices, procedures or behaviour changes, and for observational studies.
- Participants
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About 100 people
The number the study aims to enrol. It can still change while the study runs.
- Started
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Feb 2024
- Expected to finish
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Jun 2027
An estimate. End dates often move.
- Lead sponsor
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Other sponsor
The registry's catch-all category, for sponsors it does not file as a company, a government agency, or a research network.
Who can take part
This study's own entry requirements. Only the study team can say for certain whether you qualify.
- Ages
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18 to 65 years
- Sex
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Anyone
- Healthy volunteers
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Not accepted
This study is not open to healthy volunteers. The entry requirements below say who it is open to.
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Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.
Inclusion Criteria: * Meet traditional American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria for FM as well as the more recent Wolfe et al 2011 criteria * Are on stable doses of medication for 30 days prior to entering the study and agree not to change medications or dosages during the trial * Ability to fully understand and consent to study procedures * Baseline pain intensity of at least 4/10 * Pain duration of at least 6 months Exclusion Criteria: * Any longer period of work experience involving pain treatment, pain rehabilitation etc. * Presence of any illness that is judged to interfere with the trial. For example: psychiatric disorder according to the DSM-IV manual * Presence of any contraindications to fMRI scanning. For example: cardiac pacemaker, metal implants, fear of closed spaces, pregnancy. * History of significant head injury * Inability to respond accurately to the pain-relieving intervention in the behavioral part of the experiment, indicating a lack of response to the expectancy manipulation. If the healthy volunteer or clinician is not a responder to the behavioral expectancy induction he or she will be excluded. * Unwillingness to receive brief experimental pain. * Leg pain or health issues that may interfere with the study procedures. * Comorbid acute pain condition * Comorbid chronic pain condition that is rated by the subject as more painful than fibromyalgia * Current use of opioid analgesics * Concurrent inflammatory or autoimmune disease * Documented peripheral neuropathy * Pregnant * Any psychiatric disorder involving a history of psychosis (e. g schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, severe personality disorders) * History of anxiety disorders or significant anxiety symptoms interfering with fMRI procedures (e.g., panic) * Psychiatric hospitalization in the past 6 months * Unwillingness to withhold from consuming marijuana 12 hours prior to scans * Unwillingness to withhold from consuming nicotine 4 hours prior to scans * Any impairment, activity or situation that in the judgment of the Study Coordinator or Principal Investigator would prevent satisfactory completion of the study protocol. * Is an actual clinical patient of the clinician subject * Recent history of formal meditation-based training
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Conditions
The condition(s) this trial relates to.
As listed by the trial registrant
The condition terms exactly as the trial's registrant entered them.
How to take part
Only the study team decides who joins. These are the ways to reach them.
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The places running it
3 sites. The list below names each one and where it is.
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The official record
ClinicalTrials.gov lists the study team's own contact details, including names and phone numbers. We don't republish those.
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A doctor treating you
A doctor who knows your case can contact a study site on your behalf, and can tell you whether this study is worth pursuing at all.
Contacts and locations
Locations
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Brigham and Women's Hospital
RECRUITINGChestnut Hill, Massachusetts, 02467, United States
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Massachusetts General Hospital
RECRUITINGCharlestown, Massachusetts, 02129, United States
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Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital
RECRUITINGCharlestown, Massachusetts, 02129, United States
More trials for these conditions
Other studies related to the condition(s) this trial covers.
- Can a light bulb dial down chronic pain?
- Can a Hands-On nerve technique ease Fibromyalgia's grip?
- Why some days hurt more: charting Fibromyalgia's daily swings
- Zapping the vagus nerve: a new hope for fibromyalgia pain?
- Can a Video-Call stretching program ease fibromyalgia pain?
- Writing as medicine: can words soothe chronic pain?