Clinical trials

This is a multi-center, 1:1 randomized pilot study examining the efficacy and safety of infliximab 5mg/kg x 1 paired with 2 weeks of prednisone 1mg/kg per day for 2 weeks versus standard-of-care glucocorticoid therapy (prednisone 1mg/kg/day x 2 weeks followed by a 4 week taper) on the rate and speed of renal recovery from immune checkpoint inhibitor-associated AKI.

The goal of this trial is to learn if a resilience intervention can lead to improvements in lymphoma survivors' quality of life.

In this research study the study investigators want to learn more about the effect of two different FDA-approved medication regimens in the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis.

We have developed novel Brillouin microscopy and we are testing its potential for keratoconus and ectasia diagnostics. We plan to perform axial scans of the cornea in human volunteers in order to compare biomechanical properties of Keratoconus vs. Normal corneas and compare biomechanical properties of post-LASIK ectasia vs. normal corneas.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the safety and tolerability of mezigdomide in combination with ziftomenib in adolescent and adult participants with either KMT2A-rearranged (KMT2A-r) or NPM1-mutant relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

This is a randomized controlled trial investigating the effects of an 8-TRE intervention compared to a wait list (control) on metabolic health and body composition in people diagnosed with BD and who are currently obese and at least mildly depressed. Following a 1-week baseline assessment, participants will be randomized to either a TRE or the wait list (1-to-1 ratio) for 8 weeks. At baseline, Week 8 (post treatment), and Week 20 (follow-up), investigators will assess daily eating patterns for one week, followed by collection of fasting lipids, body weight and vital signs. At Week 4 (i.e., mid-treatment), the investigators will assess self-reported outcomes only. Participants assigned to the wait list condition will have the option of receiving the TRE intervention after 20 weeks.

An exercise regimen (PRIME: Proximal Resistance In-House Movement Exercise) has been designed for patients with myotonic dystrophy type 2 (DM2). The hypothesis is that this patient-friendly physical therapist (PT)-guided exercise program associates with improved functional capacity and muscle composition in DM2 in this two-period two-sequence cross-over study. Thus, participant will be randomized to one of the three possible groups. Participants in GROUP A will perform exercise routine virtually under the direct supervision of a physical therapist once a week and another session on their own for the first three months, then they will continue with same exercise routine at home for the last 3 months on their own. Participants in GROUP B will perform exercise routine virtually under the direct supervision of a physical therapist twice a week for the first three months, then they will continue with same exercise routine at home for the last 3 months on their own. Participants in GROUP C will perform exercise routine on their own during the first 3 months, then they will perform exercise routine virtually under the direct supervision of a physical therapist. Each group will include around 8 participants. Duration of the study is 6 months. In addition to exercise sessions, participants will have evaluation of their strength, motor function and muscle composition at three time points: initiation, 3 months and completion of the study at 6 months. Muscle composition will be assessed by electrical impedance myography which is a portable, non-invasive, painless and non-radiation tool that applies a weak high multifrequency electrical current to the examined muscle and allows to obtain information about its composition.

This study aims to refine and pilot test HARMONY, a psychoeducational intervention for patients with newly diagnosed hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

The aim of this study is to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of conducting a randomized trial of a brief psychoeducational intervention versus enhanced usual care for patients with locally advanced rectal cancer who are initiating neoadjuvant multimodality treatment.

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a way of non-invasively stimulating specific brain networks and is an established treatment for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). This proposal will reveal network mechanisms of the therapeutic effects of rTMS by investigating how stimulating each network specifically changes network connectivity and behavior. This will be done in a highly individualized manner in depressed and healthy patients, leading to more effective and more individualized treatments for depression.

This study is being conducted to decrease the rate of surgical wound complications. The investigators are studying the effects that caloric restriction has on decreasing the rate of surgical wound complications.

The goal of this clinical trial is to compare two group-based interventions for caregivers of persons with memory loss (N=450) delivered via telehealth. The aim is to evaluate which program is most effective for different types of caregivers in reducing stress, improving coping, and increasing confidence related to caregiving. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of the two programs, as well as be asked to complete study assessments at baseline (week 0), post-intervention (week 7), and 6-month follow-up.

Doctors spend much of each visit collecting the patient's medical history, and incomplete histories can delay diagnosis. This study tests an AI chatbot that interviews patients before their appointment and produces a structured summary of their history for the doctor. Adult patients at the first study site, a university gynecology outpatient clinic in Germany, answer the chatbot's questions on a tablet before the doctor visit. The doctor then takes the history and examines the patient as usual, without seeing the chatbot's output. Only after the doctor has finished planning care does the doctor review the chatbot's summary and rate its usefulness and accuracy. The chatbot does not change patient care. Patients also rate the ease of use and acceptability of the chatbot. The investigators will report how useful doctors find the summaries, how complete and correct the summaries are, and how patients experience the tool.

The goal of this study is to demonstrate the efficacy of an evidence-based, small-group, telehealth intervention ('STRIDE') for improving patients' ability to cope with side effects from adjuvant endocrine therapy (AET) and adhere to AET medication regimens for patients with hormone-sensitive breast cancer.

Substance use, including the use of opioids, cannabis, and other drugs, is common among adolescents and young adults, and overdose has become a leading cause of death among youth in Canada and the United States. Many young people who use substances also experience co-occurring mental health concerns. Evidence-based approaches to youth substance use care exist, including overdose prevention and safety strategies (such as naloxone) and medications for addiction treatment. These approaches remain adult-oriented, however, unevenly implemented in youth-serving settings, and insufficiently centered on the needs and goals of youth and their families. This study develops and pilot tests a written "practice companion" that helps clinicians and other trusted adults provide developmentally appropriate substance use care to youth ages 14 to 24 in hospital and community settings. The practice companion offers practical, easy-to-use guidance organized by substance and by pattern of use. It addresses cannabis and other substances that youth commonly use and that clinicians frequently seek support with, alongside a strong focus on overdose prevention through its core elements: naloxone, other safety strategies, overdose prevention and safety education, and medications for opioid use disorder. It also attends to co-occurring mental health needs and to how poverty, housing instability, and other social circumstances shape substance use and access to care. The research team will first interview youth who use substances, their families and caregivers, and clinicians to learn how each element of care should be adapted for young people. The team will then produce the practice companion and pilot test it with 60 youth across three sites, in British Columbia, Québec, and Massachusetts. After receiving care guided by the practice companion, youth will complete an interview about whether the care was relevant, useful, appropriate, and acceptable. Families and clinicians will also be interviewed to assess how feasible, sustainable, and faithful to its design the practice companion is in practice. Throughout the study, the team will work closely with youth and families who have lived experience through a community-based participatory research approach that includes Community Advisory Boards. Findings will guide a larger future study of the practice companion's effectiveness.

This study is testing a digital tool called BraveBot for young people who are receiving cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety, OCD, or related problems. BraveBot is a computer program, not a person. It talks with youth through their phone or computer while they do "face-your-fears"-style exposure therapy homework that their therapist has assigned. Sometimes an exposure is done with BraveBot's real-time coaching, and sometimes on their own; after each exposure, youth answer a few short questions about how it went. Rather than dividing participants into separate groups, the study randomizes each individual exposure homework assignment. Every time a young person opens an eligible exposure, the system makes a 1:1 random assignment deciding whether that exposure is completed with BraveBot's support or independently (self-guided). The main goal is to learn whether using BraveBot helps youth understand their exposure assignments better, put in more effort, stick with exposures when they are hard, feel more capable, and find exposures more helpful in "fighting back" against anxiety. The study also examines whether BraveBot increases the likelihood that assigned exposures are completed, and explores effects on anxiety symptoms and how safe, easy to use, and useful BraveBot feels for youth, their therapists, and parents. BraveBot does not replace the therapist, diagnose, or design exposures; it only supports the homework the clinician has assigned, and is used under clinician oversight. A built-in safety system can detect possible risk-related language, pause the session, show crisis resources (such as 988), and notify the treating clinician. The study is conducted within routine outpatient psychology clinics at Mass General Brigham. Up to 40 youth ages 12-22 will take part.

This study is a randomized controlled trial assessing the efficacy of cognitive- behavioral therapy (CBT-AR) and nutrition counseling for avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) for children and adolescents (ages 10-18 years).

Many Asian Americans with depression also struggle with physical symptoms-such as pain, fatigue, or other forms of bodily discomfort-that occur at the same time. Right now, there is no proven treatment that effectively addresses both the depression and these physical symptoms together. This study will test whether it is practical, acceptable, and safe to combine the Stress Management and Resiliency Training (SMART) program with meditative movements for people who have both major depression and these distressing physical symptoms.

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn about the impact of a point-of-care test for gonorrhea and chlamydia in people without symptoms who are seeking sexually transmitted infection testing. The main questions it aims to answer are: Does the point of care test reduce the time to antibiotic treatment? Does the point of care test increase the number of people who have completed treatment by day 7? Researchers will compare the point-of-care test to a standard laboratory-based test for gonorrhea and chlamydia. Participants will be asked to provide a urine sample or vaginal swab for testing. They will also complete surveys about their experiences with the testing.

Evaluation of treatment on the upper arm with Sculptra and Sofwave on the same day versus Sofwave followed by Sculptra 1 month later.

The investigators are doing this research to test whether parents of children ages 2-7 can better manage their child's anxiety by completing a brief, online, self-guided parent education program. One way to provide anxiety management skills to more children, and to potentially prevent worsening outcomes, is to offer online and self-guided educational programs that parents can complete without a clinician. This randomized trial will evaluate the effects of two brief, online, self-guided parent education programs designed to improve parents' understanding of anxiety and teach parents way to help their children cope with anxiety. Parents will be randomly assigned to one of the three programs. The main aim of the study is to examine whether the parent programs, compared to an educational control reduce parental accommodation of anxiety across a 1-, 4-, and 8-month follow-up period. As a secondary aim, the investigators will explore whether the parent programs reduce children's anxiety symptoms over the 8-month follow-up period. Results will inform the development of a scalable, low-cost model for promoting access to evidence-based treatment to young children.

The purpose of the present investigation is to test the efficacy of a virtual, brief (6 sessions) dyadic (patient and care-partner together) intervention to prevent chronic emotional distress in dyads where one person is diagnosed with Young Onset Dementia (YOD). Through this study, we seek to address the unmet need of preventing chronic emotional distress in YOD dyads through a feasible, acceptable and credible program, and ideally enhance resiliency and improve wellbeing and quality of life in both members of the dyad.

Tobacco use is a leading cause of premature death among individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD). Nearly 75% of individuals receiving medication treatment for OUD report concurrent tobacco use disorder (MOUD-TUD), yet evidence-based TUD treatment (i.e., Food and Drug Administration-approved medications and counseling) is less effective in those with MOUD-TUD compared to the general smoking population. Innovative interventions for promoting TUD cessation in individuals with MOUD-TUD are urgently needed. Major factors maintaining TUD in those with OUD that have not been addressed in existing treatment interventions in this population are the small social networks comprised of other smokers, pro-smoking social norms in social networks, and limited social support for quitting smoking. Peer recovery coaches (PRCs) are people with lived OUD experience who provide peer coaching to individuals with OUD and have been shown to promote increased OUD treatment retention and illicit opioid abstinence. PRCs who are in OUD-TUD recovery and trained in TUD treatment, are well positioned to provide a social model for nonsmoking and to alter the pro-smoking social norms that maintain TUD in those receiving MOUD; but this has never been tested. The investigators hypothesize that a tobacco cessation intervention, delivered by PRCs in OUD and TUD recovery with TUD training, combined with a safe and effective FDA-approved cessation medication (dual nicotine replacement therapy \[NRT\]), will be feasible, acceptable and have a greater effect on tobacco abstinence rates than current standard care TUD treatment (non-peer delivered TUD coaching plus dual NRT). To test this hypothesis, in this 3-year pilot R34, the investigators propose to adapt a behavioral TUD intervention, PeerTTS, to people with OUD and TUD and to train PRCs in OUD and TUD recovery to deliver the intervention. The investigative team will then conduct a pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) in 60 participants with MOUD-TUD interested in reducing or quitting tobacco at MGH. Participants will be randomized to receive 12 weeks of 1) PeerTTS, defined as PRC-delivered tobacco cessation coaching plus dual NRT or 2) standard care (SOC), defined as non-peer delivered TUD coaching plus dual NRT. The proposed work will adapt and test whether a peer recovery coach-delivered tobacco cessation intervention is feasible, acceptable, and potentially more effective than standard care, when combined with first line pharmacotherapy in those with MOUD-TUD. The pilot RCT will provide quantitative and qualitative data to inform a fully powered R01 or equivalent testing a refined version of the PeerTTS intervention for individuals with MOUD-TUD who face a disproportionate burden of tobacco use and related mortality. This proposal aligns with NIDA's high priority research areas to test novel treatments that sustain recovery in individuals with poly-substance use (OUD and TUD) and to advance the science of peer recovery support. It also aligns with calls to enhance PRC training to include additional evidence-based competencies that improve health.

First-degree relatives of people with inflammatory bowel disease ("IBD," including Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis) have an increased risk for developing IBD themselves. This study will follow unaffected first-degree relatives (who do not have IBD) over time to understand if their behaviors, diet, and biomarkers for IBD can help predict who gets IBD and if IBD can be prevented in these high-risk individuals. Participants will be asked once per year to complete a questionnaire and have their blood, stool, and urine collected. The anticipated length of the study (registry) is approximately 10 years or longer. Parts of this study, such as the questionnaires and stool and urine collection, may be done from home, while other parts, such as the blood draw, will need to be done from Massachusetts General Hospital.

Smoking remains the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, and there are persistent and significant disparities in tobacco use among transgender and gender diverse (TGD) individuals. Stigma, discrimination, gender dysphoria, and other gender minority stressors likely contribute to these disparities, and the increased burden of gender minority stress may also be driving higher prevalence rates of anxiety and depression, both of which are more common among TGD individuals and among those who smoke relative to comparison samples. This study will (1) explore the ways in which gender minority stressors and associated anxiety and depression compromise smoking cessation among TGD individuals, identifying elements in an existing smoking cessation intervention that need to be adjusted to meet their unique needs; (2) adapt an existing smoking cessation intervention for TGD individuals; and (3) evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of the adapted intervention in a pilot randomized controlled trial.