Conditions: Chronic Pain Low Back Pain
Keywords: low back pain pain assessment tapentadol centrally acting analgesic
Allocation: NA | Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Enrollment: 208
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
The main objective of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness, tolerability, and safety of tapentadol hydrochloride prolonged release in subjects suffering from severe chronic low back pain (LBP) who are taking either WHO Step I or Step II analgesics or no regular analgesics. This is a clinical effectiveness trial designed to establish a link between anticipated clinical outcomes and the clinical practice by means of selected measures of clinical and subject-reported outcome.

The trial will compare the effectiveness of previous analgesic treatment (either WHO Step I or Step II analgesics or no regular analgesics) with that of tapentadol hydrochloride prolonged release (PR) treatment during defined periods of evaluation.

Detailed description:

Arms:
arm 1: Tapentadol PR was given orally twice a day. A maximum of 2 oral Tapentadol immediate release (IR) tablets per day, with a minimum of a 4 hour interval between doses, were taken if there were acute pain episodes. The total daily dose of Tapentadol PR and IR were not permitted to exceed 500 mg per day.

Interventions: intervention 1: Tapentadol PR intervention 2: Observation period intervention 3: Tapentadol PR
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: Tapentadol Prolonged Release (PR) Titration and Optimal Dose Period: Starting at 50 mg Tapentadol PR twice daily, adjusted with 50 mg PR steps (upwards or downwards) as necessary to achieve a balance between pain relief and a satisfactory level of tolerability. Participants were not permitted to exceed a dose of 500 mg of Tapentadol per day. intervention 2: Eligibility assessment period to characterize the baseline over a one week period (week -1). Participants continued their previous treatment prior to allocation to tapentadol, if eligible. intervention 3: Maintenance Period: In this period participants continued Tapentadol Prolonged Release (PR) on the dose established in the Titration and Optimal Dose Period. Tapentadol IR participants were not permitted to exceed a total daily tapentadol dose of 500 mg.

Protocol document: