Effect of auricular transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation on experimental pain threshold

Physical therapists often administer pain-relieving treatment to patients, suffering from pain of various etiologies and Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) is one of the widely used non-invasive treatments for pain used by us.

Acupuncture points on the auricle of the ear & the peripheral acupuncture sites are sometimes used for treatment with Acupuncture-type TENS.

This study is an attempt to combine to ancient (Auriculotherapy) & modern (Physiotherapy-using acupuncture like TENS) method to produce an analgesic effect.

to examine the effect of high intensity low frequency Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation at auricular acupuncture points on experimental pain threshold measured at wrist and

to determine the changes in effect over time.

30 healthy females were assigned randomly to one of the three treatment groups. Group I (n=10) received TENS to appropriate auricular points for wrist analgesia. Group II (n=10) received TENS to inappropriate (placebo) auricular points & Group III (n=10) received no TENS. We measured the pain threshold at the wrist after an electrical stimulus during one pretreatment and four post treatment time periods

Group I was the only group that had statistically significant increase (p<0.05) in pain threshold with a latent period of 10 minutes. This increase remained significant for all post treatment measurements for this group.

Thus we conclude that high intensity, low frequency TENS applied to appropriate auricular points can increase pain thresholds.