Group to audit pain trials for design flaws

Researchers are investigating the trouble with pain studies. They hope to identify problems in design and implementation to help explain why many of pain trials fail, yielding no meaningful improvement in pain relief over placebo.

Some drug candidates are simply ineffective, of course. But the researchers believe other factors may play a role in the disappointing results of many studies. Trial design and execution may hinder their ability to distinguish truly effective pain treatments from less effective ones.

Under the Analgesic Clinical Trial Innovations, Opportunities, and Networks (ACTION) program, researchers hope to find clues by examining a multitude of clinical trials past and present involving treatments for acute and chronic pain.

ACTION is a University of Rochester Medical Center effort with kickoff funding from the FDA. The organizers want to bring together the public and private sectors to collaborate on multiple projects aimed at increasing available treatment options.

- here's the article