---
title: Assess experimental pain in Parkinsons
nct_id: NCT05981261
phase: NA
status: RECRUITING
sponsor: University of Aarhus
study_type: INTERVENTIONAL
canonical_url: "https://parkinsonspathways.com/trial/NCT05981261"
clinicaltrials_gov: "https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05981261"
last_fetched: "2026-05-10T14:02:26.216Z"
source: "Parkinson's Pathways (curated)"
---
# Assess experimental pain in Parkinsons

**Goal (in five words):** Assess experimental pain in Parkinsons

**Official Title:** Comparing Pain Intensity and Discomfort in Patients With Parkinson´s Disease and Healthy Controls During Inducement of Mechanical, Thermal, and Chemical Experimental Pain

**Trial ID:** [NCT05981261](https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05981261)

## Key Facts

- **Phase:** NA
- **Status:** RECRUITING
- **Study Type:** INTERVENTIONAL
- **Sponsor:** University of Aarhus
- **Target Enrollment:** 63 participants
- **Start Date:** 2023-06-07
- **Completion Date:** 2027-01-01
- **Conditions:** Pain, Parkinson Disease
- **Interventions:** inducement of experimental pain
- **Intervention Types:** OTHER

## Summary For Families

The team is trying to find out whether people with Parkinson's feel pain differently than healthy people, and whether common treatments like levodopa or deep brain stimulation change how intense or unpleasant triggered pain feels. To do that, they will apply short, controlled mechanical, heat, and chemical stimuli to provoke experimental pain and then measure pain intensity and discomfort, this is an observational comparison rather than a drug test. They are enrolling adults into three groups: healthy volunteers, people with Parkinson's on levodopa, and people with Parkinson's who have DBS. People with other neurological or medical conditions that affect pain, dementia (MoCA score under 24), untreated depression (BDI 15 or higher), inability to cooperate, or regular use of painkillers other than paracetamol (acetaminophen) or NSAIDs unless judged stable by a doctor are excluded.

## Eligibility

- **Sex:** ALL

### Full Criteria

```
Inclusion criteria

* Group healthy volunteers: healthy subjects with no PD diagnosis
* Group PD patients levodopa: Include PD patients treated with levodopa
* Group PD patients DBS: Include PD patients with DBS Exclusion criteria
* Known other neurological or medical disorders (e.g., stroke, neuropathy, diabetes) or other disorders with expected influence on experimental pain
* Known dementia (a score \<24 on the MoCA)
* Known untreated depression (a score ≥15 on the Beck Depression Inventory)
* Unable to cooperate
* Treated with painkillers except paracetamol and NSAID (except if pain and treatment is ad-equately stable as evaluated by a doctor)
```

## Locations (1)

- aarhus university Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark _(56.1567, 10.2108)_
  - Andrea Søndergaard Poulsen — (CONTACT) — +4561110138 — andrea-s-p@hotmail.com

## Central Contacts

- Andrea Søndergaard Poulsen, PhD student — (CONTACT) — +4561110138 — andrea-s-p@hotmail.com
- Lene Vase, Professor — (CONTACT) — lenevase@psy.au.dk

---

*Canonical: https://parkinsonspathways.com/trial/NCT05981261*  
*HTML version: https://parkinsonspathways.com/trial/NCT05981261*  
*Source data: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05981261*