Pain reduction using transcranial electrostimulation: a double blind "active placebo" controlled trial.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the efficacy of transcranial electrical stimulation a non-invasive method of reducing pain.


METHODS
A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.


METHODS
A total of 119 patients with chronic pain.


METHODS
Patients were treated with either transcranial electrical stimulation or an active placebo device. Short- and long-term follow-ups were evaluated for treatment efficacy with 4 ordinal scale variables: visual analogue scale (pain level), SLEEP (how often does pain disturb sleep), FREQ (frequency of pain) and MED (frequency of use of medications to relieve pain).


RESULTS
Pain level decreased significantly in the transcranial electrical stimulation-treated group compared with the active-placebo group 3 weeks after the end of treatment (p = 0.0017 between groups). Other parameters did not demonstrate significant differences. Three months after the end of treatment this effect was maintained and other treatment parameters showed similar improvements.


CONCLUSIONS
Transcranial electrical stimulation is an effective non-invasive method for pain relief. The active placebo device has a powerful effect on reported pain, which diminishes in the long-term. The involvement of possible neural mechanisms is discussed.
Gabis
Lidia
L
Weinberg Child Development Center, Safra Children's Hospital at Sheba Medical Center, Affiliated to the Tel-Aviv University Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Hashomer, Israel. gabis@post.tau.ac.il
Shklar
Bentzion
B
Baruch
Yael Kesner
YK
Raz
Raanan
R
Gabis
Eddy
E
Geva
Daniel
D
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002908:Chronic Disease; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006261:Headache / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D017116:Low Back Pain / Q000628:therapy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019547:Neck Pain / Q000628:therapy; D059408:Pain Management; D010147:Pain Measurement; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D016896:Treatment Outcome