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RSDSA Research

RSDSA is now accepting applications for the 2008 Rachel Tobias Young Investigator Award (PDF)

2007-2008 Tobias Grant Fosters the Intersection of Engineering and Medicine in CRPS Diagnosis and Treatment

Author: Siegel SM, Lee JW, Oaklander AL
Title: Needlestick Distal Nerve Injury in Rats Models Symptoms of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome
Source: International Anesthesia Research Society. 2007;105:1820-1829.
Supported by Public Health Service grant NINDS R01NS42866, The Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Association of America, and the National Organization for Rare Disorders.

The Rachel Tobias Young Pain Research Investigator Awarded to Oaklander and Lee
Contralesional mirror-pain and nerve damage; investigation of mechanisms in the DNI rat model of CRPS, Drs. Oaklander and Lee, Harvard Medical School.

Author: Agarwal S, Broatch J, Raja SN
Title: Web-based Epidemiological Survey of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome
A demographically-based epidemiological clinical study on CRPS diagnosis and treatment.

RSDSA and American RSDHope Award Research Grant to the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles

Clinical Study at Beth Israel Medical Center, New York
Pilot Study on Safety and Efficacy of the Non-Invasive Transcranial Stimulation to Relieve Neuropathic Pain in Patients with CRPS. Click here for details.
View the interim report of the study here.

Clinical Research Studies

Cerebrospinal Fluid Repository (CSF)
Drexel University is currently recruiting for a CSF repository that would allow the use of CSF in biochemical studies of various neurologic diseases. Click here for more information.

Dystonia and CRPS Study
The NIH/NINDS is sponsoring an outpatient research study assessing patients with Focal Dystonia (FD). Click here for more information.

Autonomic Dysfunction and Spinal Cord Stimulation in Complex Regional Pain Syndrome
Patients diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome are needed for a study investigating how the autonomous nervous system works before Spinal Cord Stimulator Implant and after. For criteria and contact information, please click here.

Brain fMRI for Children and Adolescents with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome
Children and adolescents (ages 9 to 20) may be eligible to participate in a clinical research study conducted by the Children's Hospital Boston and McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. Click here for more information.

Research Study in Manhattan
The New York University Pain Management Center and the NYU Department of Neurosciences are exploring the value of a very sophisticated, but totally non-invasive, test for the initial diagnosis and the response to treatment of CRPS I (RSD). This is a research, not treatment, study.

Clinical Trials Currently Recruiting

Double Blind Placebo Controlled Study of Outpatient Intravenous Ketamine for the Treatment of CRPS

Treatment of Chronic Pain using Real Time fMRI

Want to Help Physicians Better Diagnose CRPS? Participate in the RSDSA funded research study, "Validation of Revised Diagnostic Criteria for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome"

Amended Criteria: Neurotropin to treat acute dental and pain associated with complex regional pain syndromes I and II (RSD and Causalgia)

General Knowledge

What is CPRS?
CRPS: Fact and Fiction
Summary of the NINDS State of the Science Meeting
Medifocus Guide to Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome
A resource guide for the person with CRPS. Each guide has current and relevant CRPS research organized into categories for easy reading. Free updates are provided for 1 year.

Evidence Reports

Does CRPS-I spread from the original site of appearance?
Is Spinal Cord Stimulation useful in the management of CRPS?
Is CRPS-I associated with malignancy?

WBZ News Radio show (12 MB mp3)
Jordan Rich's interview with Anne Louise Oaklander, MD, PhD, director of the Nerve Injury Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital, April 2006.

New Study Finds Nerve Damage in CRPS
Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have found the first evidence of a physical abnormality underlying CRPS I. In the February issue of the journal Pain, they describe finding that skin affected by CRPS-I pain appears to have lost some small-fiber nerve endings, a change characteristic of other neuropathic pain syndromes.

And a Little Mollusk Shall Lead Us
By Ying Ju Sung, PhD

Updated July 15, 2008