Chronic pain treatment with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can be effective, as this newly released clinical trial shows. In this technique a weak current, delivered by two electrodes on the scalp is used.
The efficacy of tDCS stimulation was confirmed in studies in patients with central pain after stroke, pain after spinal cord injury, visceral pain, migraine headaches, complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), fibromyalgia, phantom pain. Limb amputation may lead to chronic painful sensations referred to the absent limb (phantom limb pain). This phenomenon is probably caused by the reorganization of the cerebral cortex, particularly in the motor cortex and primary somatosensory cortex (these changes include increase of neuronal excitability and decrease of GABA activity). Phantom limb pain is often refractory to the treatment, therefore treatment with tDCS can be useful for these patients. In the presented study tDCS was used for the treatment of patients suffering for the phantom limb pain after traumatic amputation of the left lower limb. Previously applied therapy was not effective. Pharmacotherapy caused unacceptable side effects.
In this trial patients with the anodal tDCS technique performed 10-times over the motor cortex and primary somatosensory cortex resulted in clinically significant improvement: reduced frequency of phantom limb pain episodes, pain intensity was lower compared with the period before stimulation.
Visit http://www.trans-cranial.com for details.
DOI: 10.5604/1640-324x.1108260
Photos: (Click photo to enlarge)
Read Full Story - TCT Research tDCS Stimulator for Chronic Pain - Clinical Trial Results | More news from this source
Press release distribution by PRLog
