The Body of Evidence 151 – Scrambler Therapy: how good is it at treating chronic pain
A viewer question prompts Chris and Sophie to look into scrambler therapy. A medical therapy for chronic pain with a silly name that sounds like it should be pseudoscience, but actually isn’t. How is it different from Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS)? How good is the evidence and how much of the benefit is actually a placebo response.
Become a supporter of our show today either on Patreon or through PayPal! Thank you!
http://www.patreon.com/thebodyofevidence/
https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=9QZET78JZWCZE
Email us your questions at thebodyofevidence@gmail.com.
Editor: Robyn Flynn
Theme music: “Fall of the Ocean Queen“ by Joseph Hackl
Rod of Asclepius designed by Kamil J. Przybos
Chris’ book, Does Coffee Cause Cancer?: https://ecwpress.com/products/does-coffee-cause-cancer
Obviously, Chris is not your doctor (probably). This podcast is not medical advice for you; it is what we call information.
References:
1) 2016 review of scrambler therapy for chronic pain
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-016-3177-3
2) 2018 update https://doi.org/10.1177/1534735419845143
- Key studies:
- Sabato (2005) – 226 patients: 80% had >50% pain reduction
- Marineo (2011) – RCT: 91% pain reduction in Scrambler group vs. 28% in controls
- Ricci (2012) – 82 patients: Mean pain scores dropped from 6.2/10 prior to treatment to 1.6 just after completing 10 treatment days to 2.9, 2 weeks after finishing treatment.
- Compagnone (2015) – 201 patients: pain went from 7.41 to 1.6
- Notaro (2015) – All patients had ≥50% pain reduction; relief lasted ~8 weeks; sleep improved
- Pachman (2014) – 37 patients: 53% average pain reduction; effect lasted 10 weeks
- One ‘no results’ study: Campbell (2013) – 14 patients, RCT with sham control; no improvement—but team lacked experience, which may have skewed results.