Virtual Walking to Reduce Chronic Neuropathic Pain in Subjects With SCI
Key facts
- Who runs it
- Swiss Paraplegic Research, Nottwil
- Where
- Nottwil, SwitzerlandSee the site
- Trial code
- Status
- Recruiting
- People taking part
- 40 people, planned
- Started
- 20 Jan 2026
- Expected to end
- 30 Nov 2027
- Type of study
- Interventional, 3 groupsOne group gets a sham (pretend) treatment, for comparison.
- Treatments tested
- Virtual Walking
- Sham Virtual Walking
- Record updated
- 21 January 2026
Who can take part
- Age
- 18 years to 75 years
- Sex
- Women and men
- Healthy volunteers
- Cannot take part
The registry criteria, word for word
Show all 10 criteriaShow less
Who can take part
- Sufficient knowledge of German language to understand the instructions, assessments and to fill in questionnaires
- Age ≥ 18y, ≤ 75y
- Chronic traumatic or non-traumatic SCI (>6 month after SCI) with an SCI severity grade AIS A, B, C or D
- At or below level spinal cord injury neuropathic pain on trunk or lower extremities diagnosed by a neurologist following the ISCIP classification (Bryce et al., 2012) of at least 4/10 intensity on a NRS (Langford et al., 2023)
- Ability to draw with a pen
Who cannot take part
- - Serious psychiatric disorders, which are accompanied by imminent or current acute harm to oneself or others, or which require inpatient psychiatric treatment for other reasons, or other indications of a foreseeable, seriously harmful effect of participation in the study based on the clinical impression from the psychological screening interview
- Known epilepsy
- neurological disorders (multiple sclerosis, ALS, Guillan-Barré Syndrome, congenital disorders, polyneuropathy)
- Pregnancy (anamnestic) in women of child-bearing age (18-49 years)
- Participants with a walking ability more than 5 minutes without walking aids
Check if you might fit
Answer for yourself. This is not a decision: only the study team can say whether you can take part.
- Are you between 18 and 75 years old?
Where in Switzerland
- Schweizer Paraplegiker Zentrum NottwilNottwil, SwitzerlandContact: Gunther Landmann, KD Dr. med.Taking people
About the trial
What the trial wants to find out
About 70% of people with a spinal cord injury in Switzerland have chronic pain that lasts more than 3 to 6 months. This pain can be caused by muscle or joint problems, or by nerve damage (neuropathic pain). Neuropathic pain is often hard to treat, and current treatments may cause side effects or not work well.
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This study will test whether virtual walking from different visual perspectives can reduce chronic neuropathic pain and improve quality of life after spinal cord injury. We will also compare which perspective works best.
To better understand how the training works, we will use two tests-quantitative sensory testing (QST) and contact heat-evoked potentials (CHEPs)-to measure changes in the pain and nerve systems.
The 3 groups in the trial
- Group 1Treatment being tested
Participants will receive virtual walking (VW) therapy with a personalized avatar. Using a green screen setup, a live video of the participant's upper body is combined with pre-recorded walking legs to create a full-body walking illusion, displayed on a large projection screen in a forest environment. The participant will be seated in a modified wheelchair that tilts 2° to each side to simulate pelvic movement during walking.
Treatment: Virtual Walking
- Group 2Sham treatment, for comparison
Participants will receive virtual walking (VW) therapy without an avatar. The screen will display only a moving forest environment, and the wheelchair tilt will be omitted. This condition serves as a sham intervention, matching Group 1 in session number, duration, and procedure, but without the visual and vestibular walking components.
Treatment: Sham Virtual Walking
- Control GroupNo study treatment, for comparison
Participants will receive standard medical pain management only. They will not take part in virtual walking therapy but will complete the pain diary and questionnaires at the scheduled assessment time points.
Questions to ask the study team
- How often do I need to come in, and for how long each time?
- Are travel costs paid?
- Can I keep my own doctor?
- What happens if I want to stop?
Contact the study team: see the registry record → Contacts and Locations
Print a page for my doctorData and sources
- Registry record
- Listed on ClinicalTrials.gov.
- Official title
- Virtual Walking With Habitual Feedback to Reduce Chronic Neuropathic Pain in Individuals With Spinal Cord Injury
- Fit questions
- Built from NCT07165353, who can take part
- Record updated
- 21 January 2026