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ActiVITAE - Vibro-tactile VNS to alleviate geriatric chronic pain

Projectomschrijving

ActiVITAE: ondersteunt ouderen die last hebben van chronische pijn

Chronische pijn is een veel voorkomende aandoening met een grote persoonlijke en sociale belasting. Vooral bij oudere patiënten, waarbij frequent sprake is van meerdere aandoeningen en polyfarmacie, zijn er tot op heden weinig effectieve methoden om pijn effectief te verminderen.

Hoe het werkt

In ActiVITAE wordt samen met een Deense en Italiaanse partner een innovatieve interventie getoetst op het effect op pijnervaring, het functioneren en de kwaliteit van leven. In ActiVITAE wordt gebruik gemaakt van het stimuleren van cellen in de buikwand middels infrageluid. Dit infrageluid heeft naar verwachting invloed op de verwerking van pijn in het brein.

Wat het oplevert

In de studie zullen in totaal 60 proefpersonen boven de 65 jaar gerandomiseerd worden ingedeeld in een experimentele behandeling of een placebobehandeling. De verwachte duur van de studie bedraagt één jaar.

Voor wie

Voor ouderen die last hebben van chronische pijn.

Verslagen


Samenvatting van de aanvraag

Chronic pain affects more than 1.5 billion individuals globally – and is the single most prevalent symptom among geriatric patients. Chronic pain has tremendous impact on individuals’ wellbeing, lifestyle, independence, activity and comfort, and the condition is associated with the spiral degeneration of general quality of life of older adults OR: with increased disability, deconditioning and hence, increased change on frailty. ActiVITAE aims to help people ageing well by alleviating geriatric chronic pain using our completely novel and patented,ICT-based pain management system. The solution, Vibration Induced Treatment by Abdominal Excitation (VITAE), is disruptive and provides a pleasant, non-invasive Vagal Nerve Stimulation (VNS), utilising abdominal vibro-tactile stimulation of the Pacinian corpuscles. VITAE takes advantage of the well-documented principle based on induction of nerve signals which travel through the sensory nerve system via the Vagal Nerve to the brain – and when combined with a relaxing audio track, the pain and anxiety centres in the brain are inhibited, reducing symptoms of not only chronic pain but also depression, which (unsurprisingly) often accompanies chronic pain. The VITAE treatment is provided by an amplifier, a vibro-tactile transducer, which is applied to the patient in a corset-like unit, and a pair of headphones. The transducer is operated through a smartphone, which controls the vibration stimuli and the relaxing audio track. A treatment session takes around 25 minutes, and data are stored on a server, providing the medical staff with a log of the sessions. As the treatment consists of external stimulation of the abdomen, it is completely noninvasive and non-pharmacological. Moreover, early experiments have shown encouraging results with no side-effects. By thus reducing the amount of medicine used while still treating the conditions, it is the objective of the project to significantly reduce pain symptoms, reduce side-effects, reduce costs, improve the quality of life and self-sufficiency of the geriatric patients. The VITAE is designed to all people suffering from chronic benign pain and/or depression - certainly also geriatric chronic pain patients - currently in clinic care but eventually also at home. In ActiVITAE, we aim at bringing co-creation to the development cycle of the VITAE through the engagement of end-users (from different levels) to collect insights and knowledge about requirements of the older adults in terms of the usability of the VITAE. The objectives of this project are to document the effects of VITAE on geriatric patients, to identify obstacles in the implementation of VITAE within clinics and finally to establish a foundation for further collaboration beyond this project.

Onderwerpen

Kenmerken

Projectnummer:
735180001
Looptijd: 100%
Looptijd: 100 %
2019
2021
Onderdeel van programma:
Gerelateerde subsidieronde:
Projectleider en penvoerder:
Dr. R. Soer
Verantwoordelijke organisatie:
Universitair Medisch Centrum Groningen