經顱直流電刺激術結合經皮神經電刺激對慢性頸部肌筋膜疼痛之立即效果

Objective: We sought to clarify whether a combination treatment of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) could result in greater pain relief for patients with chronic cervical myofascial pain syndrome. Methods: This study was a randomized, sham-controlled, crossover clinical trial. Ten patients with chronic cervical myofascial pain randomly received each of active tDCS/active TENS, active tDCS/sham TENS, and sham tDCS/active TENS stimulation. Visual analog scale and pressure pain threshold scores were recorded immediately before and after each treatment by a blinded evaluator. Results: The three treatment approaches all showed significant pain reduction effects (p = 0.00) compared with the baseline scores. The pain reduction percentage in tDCS/TENS, tDCS/sham TENS, sham tDCS/TENS were 35.41%, 30.27%, and 26.64%, respectively. However, none of the groups reached statistical significance, although a greater pain reduction was observed in the tDCS/T