The journal of headache and pain
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Outcome of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation in chronic pain: short-term results of a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial.
The aim of this study was to test the efficacy of shortterm transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) treatment in chronic pain with respect to pain intensity and patients' satisfaction with treatment results. We therefore performed a randomised controlled trial comparing TENS and sham TENS. Patients, researchers and therapists were blinded for treatment allocation. ⋯ The proportions of patients satisfied with treatment result differed significantly for TENS compared to sham TENS (58 and 42.7% respectively, chi(2)=3.8, p=0.05). However, no differences in pain intensity were found for patients treated with TENS or sham TENS. Only for patients satisfied with treatment results pain intensity gradually decrease equally both for TENS and sham TENS with repeated treatment application.