title: Long term results of peripheral conditioning stimulation as an analgesic measure in chronic pain.
abstract: In the present study 123 patients with chronic pain, consecutively referred for symptomatic pain treatment, were given peripheral conditioning stimulation as an analgesic measure and were followed for 2 years or till they terminated the treatment. The stimulation was either conventional transcutaneous nerve stimulation (TNS) [35] of mainly cutaneous afferents with high frequency (10-100 Hz) or acupuncture-like TNS [11] where muscle nerves are activated at a low repetition rate (1-4 Hz) with small trains of stimuli. The follow-up showed that 55, 41 and 31% of the patients continued the treatment after 3, 12 and 24 months, respectively. About 30% of the patients had to use acupuncture-like TNS to get useful analgesia, defined as a desire of the patient to continue stimulation treatment. Three-quarters of the successfully relieved patients reported more than 50% pain relief as measured from visual analogue scales and half of these reported an increased social activity and a decrease of analgesic drug intake by more than 50%. Psychogenic and visceral pains were less suitable for TNS treatment. It is concluded that peripheral conditioning stimulation is a valuable therapy in cases of chronic pain and that both conventional and acupuncture-like TNS should be tried before considering implantable devices or destructive surgery.
mesh_terms: D015670:Acupuncture Therapy; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000698:Analgesia / Q000379:methods; D002648:Child; D003213:Conditioning, Psychological; D004599:Electric Stimulation Therapy / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods; D004890:Erythema / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010146:Pain / Q000145:classification / Q000209:etiology; D059408:Pain Management; D010525:Peripheral Nerves / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013997:Time Factors