The Clinical journal of pain
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Impact of continuous low level heatwrap therapy in acute low back pain patients: subjective and objective measurements.
Muscular pain is usually associated with increased muscle tension resulting in a vicious tension-pain-cycle, leading to increased alertness and stress. However, this has not been broadly evaluated using objective methods, for example, looking at neurophysiologic changes. The focus of this study was, therefore, to combine objective [spontaneous electroencephalogram (EEG) as a surrogate of alertness and stress] with subjective parameters (self-assessed pain affected variables) to investigate the effect of continuous low-level heat therapy in low back pain (LBP)-patients. ⋯ In addition to classic psychophysical assessment of pain-related parameters and sleep quality, performance in daily life, we were able to obtain objective measures (EEG) that suggest an acute therapeutic relaxation on the basis of the central nervous system effects accompanying the reported significant pain relief. We believe that this was due to a reduced nociceptive information load in LBP-patients after the use of the heatwrap therapy.