TMS-EEG Biomarkers for Chronic Pain

Launched by UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · Aug 4, 2025

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

This clinical trial is studying a new way to understand chronic pain by looking at brain activity. Researchers are using a special machine called the DELPHI system, which gently stimulates the brain with magnetic pulses and then records the brain’s electrical responses. By analyzing these responses, the team hopes to better predict different types of chronic pain, track how pain changes over time, and see how well certain pain medicines are working.

Adults between 18 and 80 years old who have had chronic pain lasting more than six months may be eligible to join, as long as they don’t have certain brain or psychiatric conditions, metal implants near the head, or are pregnant or breastfeeding. Participants will undergo non-invasive brain testing using the DELPHI system and provide information about their pain and treatment. The study is currently recruiting, and joining could help improve how chronic pain is diagnosed and treated in the future.

Gender

ALL

Eligibility criteria

• Inclusion Criteria:
• • Male and female participants aged 18-80 with a diagnosis of chronic pain agreeing to participate in all study procedures. To maximize accrual and phenotypic variability in the sample for planned analyses, we include patients meeting ICD-11 criteria for chronic pain, a duration-based parent code for several common, clinically relevant pain conditions. Patients must have pain lasting more than 6 months.
• Exclusion Criteria:
• • Neurologic disorders: Dementia, Severe neurocognitive disorder (MoCA \< 22), Severe aphasia, Seizure disorder, certain structural brain lesions (e.g., intracranial mass lesions, neoplasms, hydrocephalus, sequelae of meningitis, MS plaques), cerebral palsy, or complete paralysis
• • Major psychiatric disorders (e.g., Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia), suicidal thoughts
• • Subjects with any metallic brain implant or fragments (such as shunt, pacemaker, clips, coils, bullet fragments, cochlear implants).
• • Subjects with any implanted devices activated or controlled by physiological signals and/or ferromagnetic or other magnetic sensitive metals implanted in the head or anywhere within 12 inches/30 cm from the stimulation coil.
• • Subjects using medications that may alter electroencephalography (EEG) waveforms, including ketamine and benzodiazepines, are eligible to participate, but will be asked to hold these medications 4-8 hours prior to the study visits, as appropriate.
• • Pregnant or breastfeeding woman.