Pain
Get the support you need in complex pain clinical trials
We apply specialized experience to create a comprehensive strategy for your pain clinical trial.
Strategic enrollment and retention
Engage the right patients and reduce site burden with our strategic patient validation, targeted education and rigorous site management.
Dedicated teams with hands-on experience
We provide tailored solutions and support data quality as we consider the needs of sites, patients and sponsors in pain clinical trials.
Operational excellence
Fortrea can help you navigate the dynamic space of pain-focused trials—from protocol design to global execution—with scientific rigor and operational excellence.
Advancing pain management clinical trials
Pain touches nearly every area of medicine and remains one of the most common and challenging symptoms to treat. The far-reaching effects of pain disorders extend beyond individual patients to families, caregivers, workplaces and healthcare systems. As a result, improving pain management is recognized globally as a major public health priority.
Successfully developing pain management therapies requires a deep understanding of the biological drivers of specific pain conditions, combined with well-designed clinical programs that generate reliable, meaningful evidence.
Learn how our dedicated neuroscience team at Fortrea understands the complexities and can help shape the strategic direction of your next pain-focused clinical trial.
Chronic pain research
As neuropathic pain science research is quickly evolving, thoughtful trial execution is more important than ever. Our team at Fortrea helps deliver targeted patient selection, precision dosing strategies and trial designs that reflect the multifactorial nature of pain.
Learn how we address the difficulty of measuring pain and explore the use of AI to support the analysis of ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and help manage placebo response rates in chronic pain clinical trials.
Acute pain clinical trials
Designing a successful acute pain trial requires a strong focus on the patient experience. Acute pain is often time-limited and procedure-related, stressing the importance of balancing data entry requirements with patient burden.
Learn how we help sponsors enhance endpoint protection in pain management clinical trials.
Migraine clinical trials
As a complex neurological disorder with variable frequency, severity and symptom presentation, migraine requires carefully designed studies that capture both pain and associated symptoms while minimizing bias and variability.
Our team can help you consider strategies for overcoming trial design challenges, streamlining data collection methods and running more efficient, compliant migraine trials.
Neuropathic pain trials
Quantitative sensory testing (QST), skin biopsies, genetic profiling of the electrogenisome and biomarker integration are driving a more refined classification of neuropathic pain phenotypes.
Our neuroscience specialists can help support your targeted trial designs and enrichment strategies in neuropathic pain studies. We know how to help enhance signal detection and mitigate placebo response, which is particularly critical in heterogeneous populations such as diabetic peripheral neuropathy.
Frequently Asked Questions
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What are the key challenges in pain clinical trials?
Pain clinical trials present unique challenges due to the subjective nature of pain, variability in patient experiences and the influence of psychological and environmental factors on reported outcomes. Recruiting appropriate patient populations, minimizing placebo response, selecting meaningful endpoints and maintaining participant engagement throughout the study are all important considerations. Careful protocol design and consistent assessment methods are essential for generating reliable data.
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How can placebo response be managed in pain studies?
Placebo response is a well-recognized challenge in pain clinical trials and can make it more difficult to detect treatment effects. Strategies to help manage placebo response include optimizing study design, standardizing patient interactions, using objective eligibility criteria, incorporating patient training and selecting appropriate statistical methods. Some studies also use enrichment strategies or placebo run-in periods, depending on the therapeutic area and regulatory considerations.
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What endpoints are commonly used in pain clinical trials?
Pain clinical trials typically evaluate both patient-reported outcomes and functional measures. Common endpoints include changes in pain intensity using validated rating scales, physical function, quality of life, sleep quality, use of rescue medication and patient global assessments. Endpoint selection depends on the indication, study objectives and regulatory expectations, with an increasing emphasis on outcomes demonstrating meaningful clinical benefit to patients.
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What are the key considerations in chronic pain clinical trials?
Chronic pain clinical trials often require longer treatment and follow-up periods to evaluate sustained efficacy and safety. Study designs should account for patient heterogeneity, concomitant medications, disease duration and factors that may influence pain perception over time. Selecting appropriate endpoints, minimizing participant burden and supporting long-term retention are important for maintaining data quality throughout the study.
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How are acute pain clinical trials conducted?
Acute pain clinical trials are typically conducted in settings where pain onset is predictable, such as following surgery, dental procedures or injury. Participants are enrolled before or shortly after the painful event, and treatment efficacy is evaluated over a relatively short period using standardized pain assessments and other clinical outcomes. These studies require precise timing of assessments and careful control of rescue medication use to accurately measure treatment effects.
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How do you promote patient retention in pain studies?
Patient retention is critical to the success of pain clinical trials, particularly in studies with extended follow-up periods. Retention strategies often focus on reducing participant burden through flexible scheduling, clear communication, patient education and convenient visit options when appropriate. Consistent engagement, accessible study sites and thoughtful protocol design can also help encourage continued participation and improve study completion rates.