• Gabriel Tan, Diana H Rintala, John I Thornby, June Yang, Walter Wade, and Christine Vasilev.
• Pain Section, Anesthesiology (145), Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, 2002 Holcombe Boulevard, Houston, TX 77030, USA. tan.gabriel@med.va.gov
• J Rehabil Res Dev. 2006 Jul 1;43(4):461-74.

AbstractTreatments for chronic pain in persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) have been less than effective. Cranial electrotherapy stimulation (CES), a noninvasive technique that delivers a microcurrent to the brain via ear clip electrodes, has been shown to effectively treat several neurological and psychiatric disorders. The present study examined the effects of daily 1-hour active CES or sham CES treatment (randomly assigned) for 21 days on pain intensity and interference with activities in 38 males with SCI. The active CES group (n = 18) reported significantly decreased daily pain intensity compared with the sham CES group (n = 20) (mean change: active CES = -0.73, sham CES = -0.08; p = 0.03). Additionally, the active CES group reported significantly decreased pain interference (-14.6 pre- vs postintervention, p = 0.004) in contrast to the nonsignificant decrease in the sham CES group (-4.7 pre- vs postintervention, p = 0.24). These results suggest that CES can effectively treat chronic pain in persons with SCI.

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