Comparative Study: Analgesic effect of Al-TENS in Variation of Treatment Time on Experimentally Induced Ischaemic Pain in Healthy Young Adult

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of acupuncture like-TENS in variation of time on experimentally induced ischaemic pain.

Methods: 80 healthy subjects (40 female and 40 male) of age group between 18 to 28 years were randomly allocated to four groups A, B, C and placebo group D. After experimentally inducing ischaemic pain by sub maximal effort tourniquet technique (SMETT), followed by hand grip exercises, AL-TENS applied for 10 min in group A, 16 min in group B, 20 min in group C and 20 min placebo in group D. Baseline data obtained after induction of ischaemic pain. Measurements of pain intensity were obtained via the visual analogue scale (VAS). Result: The one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post hoc ANOVA performed between groups comparison of the variables showed significant decrease in pain intensity score on VAS at 10 min and 16 min with placebo group but revealed no significant differences between groups at 18th and 20th minutes. Thus indicating application of AL-TENS for 10 minutes or 16 minutes is sufficient to produce hypoalgesic effect.

Conclusion: Results of this study have indicated that low-frequency TENS (AL-TENS) has a greater hypoalgesic effect compared to placebo TENS on an experimental pain model which closely resemble to acute clinical pain. This study has also demonstrated that 10 minutes and 16 minutes are sufficient for application of acupuncture like TENS in producing its hypoalgesic effect.