Journal of Pain & Relief
Open Access

Abstract

Objectives: Neuropathic pain is common after neural injury but often difficult to effectively treat. Scrambler therapy is a novel therapeutic modality which treats pain via noninvasive cutaneous electric stimulation by providing â�?�?â�?�?non-painâ�?�?â�?�? information. This study was performed to investigate the effect of Scrambler therapy for the treatment of chronic neuropathic pain. Methods: Eligible patients had neuropathic pain symptoms of â�?¥3-month duration with pain rated as 4 or more on a visual analogue scale (VAS) during the prior week. Patients were treated with Scrambler therapy to the affected area(s) for up to ten daily 30-min sessions. Symptoms were monitored using a VAS ranging from 0 to 10, before and after each treatment session. Primary outcome measure was change in VAS scores at one week; secondary outcome measure was change in VAS scores at two weeks. Results: Six patients were enrolled. Four patients had spinal cord injury, 1 patient had intracerebral hemorrhage and 1 patient suffered brachial plexus injury. Treatment session 1 to 6, the difference in VAS between before and after therapy was significant (p<0.05, paired t test), but treatment session 7 to 10, the difference in VAS between before and after therapy was not significant (p>0.05, paired t test). At one week, the mean VAS score was reduced from 6.0 to 4.1 (32%) (p=0.037, paired t test). At two weeks, the mean VAS score was reduced from 6.0 to 4.8 (20%) but not significant (p=0.058, paired t test). No undesirable side effects were observed during this study. Conclusion: Preliminary data support that Scrambler therapy may reduce chronic neuropathic pain immediately during short-term (about 1 week), but did not reduce pain immediately after 1 week of therapy. Pain reduction effect of Scrambler therapy did not persist beyond 1 or 2 weeks. Further randomized sham controlled research is warranted.

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