TENS in chronic pain: a systematic review

Authors

  • Cristina Barcia-Mejía Universidad de Vigo. España.
  • Yoana González-González Universidad de Vigo. España.
  • Iria Da Cuña-Carrera Departamento de Biología Funcional y Ciencias de la Salud. Universidad de Vigo. España.
  • Alejandra Alonso-Calvete Departamento de Biología Funcional y Ciencias de la Salud. Universidad de Vigo. España.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31157/an.v25i2.239

Keywords:

chronic pain, transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation, physiotherapy, review

Abstract

Introduction: Chronic pain is a multifactorial problem which includes as physical as psychological and social issues, and it affects the whole life of patients who suffer from it. Nowadays, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is used for analgesic, despite there is little evidence concerning its effectiveness. The aim of this study is to determinate the analgesic effects of TENS in chronic pain.
Material and method: A systematic review was carried out during February 2018, in Medline, Web Of Science and Cinhal. The following words in the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) were used: Transcutáneous Electric Nerve Stimulation and Chronic Pain. After the exclusion and inclusion criteria, 14 studies were used to this review. There is a wide variety on the design of the studies, the pathology analyzed and the interventions.
Conclusions: TENS seems to be an effective analgesic measure in chronic pain. However, other studies also demonstrate the need of further investigation in TENS as a help in other therapies.

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Published

2020-08-01

How to Cite

Barcia-Mejía , C., González-González , Y., Da Cuña-Carrera , I., & Alonso-Calvete , A. (2020). TENS in chronic pain: a systematic review. Archivos De Neurociencias, 25(2), 67–79. https://doi.org/10.31157/an.v25i2.239

Issue

Vol. 25 No. 2 (2020)

Section

Evidence synthesis

License

Copyright (c) 2020 Instituto Nacional de Neurología y Neurocirugía Manuel Velasco Suárez

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

September 2022-present © Instituto Nacional de Neurología y Neurocirugía Manuel Velasco Suárez. Open access articles under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. No commercial re-use is allowed.

January-September 2022 © The authors. Open access articles under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. No commercial re-use is allowed.

January 2014-December 2021 © Instituto Nacional de Neurología y Neurocirugía Manuel Velasco Suárez. Open access articles under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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