DOI: 10.1097/01.BONEJ.0000335114.02803.f4

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Issn Print: 1938-8659

Publication Date: 2008/09/01


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TENS and Sham TENS Have a Similar Impact on Chronic Pain Levels—What About Patient Satisfaction?

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Excerpt

A new study on transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) makes a rather oblique case for the value of this electrical treatment modality in certain subgroups of patients. The results are complicated.
However, this should not come as a surprise, as the entire body of evidence on TENS as a treatment for chronic pain defies easy interpretation.
A randomized controlled trial (RCT) of 164 subjects with chronic pain published in 2006 found that 10 days of high-intensity TENS had no greater effect on chronic pain than a similar dose of sham TENS.
According to Jan Oosterhof, MD, and colleagues, “no differences in pain intensity were found for patients treated with TENS or sham TENS.” (See Oosterhof et al., 2006.
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