hBET for Pain and Sleep feasibility v1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Home-based Brainwave Entrainment Technology (hBET) for management of chronic pain and sleep disturbance. A feasibility study.
IRAS ID
261462
Contact name
Anthony Jones
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Manchester
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Long-term pain affects one-third of the United Kingdom population and can be very disabling. People experiencing long-term pain often suffer from disturbed sleep because of their pain symptoms, and disturbed sleep can then make their pain symptoms worse. Managing long-term pain is very costly to the NHS. The most common treatment is prescribed medicines, but these do not always work and can have serious side-effects.
We have been developing an alternative approach for treating long-term pain. Our approach uses very simple non-invasive tools to promote some kinds of brain activity (called brainwave entrainment). It involves participants using headphones to listen to some specific sounds, or using googles to look at some flashing lights. The studies we have undertaken so far seem to show that doing this can change how the brain responds to pain. It potentially offers an inexpensive yet effective way of reducing pain and improving sleep for patients with long-term pain. We also want to find out whether our tools can be reliably used in home settings, and whether patients would be happy using our approach.
The aim of this study is to test the suitability and acceptability of our home-based tools with individuals with long-term pain. 30 adult participants with long-term pain and pain-related sleep disturbance will be recruited. They will use our tools for at least 20 minutes before sleep every day for 4 weeks. We will interview them to ask about their experiences of using the tools, and their feedback and suggestions on how we should develop our approach. We will measure changes in the nature of their pain, sleep, fatigue and mood. These findings will inform the planning and design of a future much bigger study to test out our tools.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Sheffield Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/YH/0313
Date of REC Opinion
16 Oct 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion