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The Treatment
of Fibromyalgia with
 Cranial
Electrotherapy Stimulation
Alan S. Lichtbroun, Mei-Ming C. Raicer, Ray B. Smith
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ABSTRACT:
In cranial electrotherapy stimulation (CES), microcurrent levels of
electrical stimulation are passed across the head via electrodes
clipped to the ear lobes. After successful clinical use of CES with
fibromyalgia patients in our clinic, it was decided to test these
results with a double-blind, placebo-controlled study in which 60
randomly assigned patients were given 3 weeks of 1-hour-daily CES
treatments, sham CES treatments, or were held as wait in-line controls
for any placebo effect in the sham-treated patients. Treated patients
showed a 28% improvement in tender point scores, and a 27% improvement
in self-rated scores of general pain level. The number of subjects
rating their quality of sleep as poor dropped from 60% at the
beginning of the study to 5%. In addition, there were significant
gains in the self-rated feelings of well-being and quality of life,
plus gains in six stress-related psychological test measures. No
placebo effect was found among the sham-treated controls. A
theoretical role of CES in affecting the brain's pain message
mechanisms and/or neurohormonal control systems is discussed. It is
concluded that CES is as effective as the drug therapies in several
trials, with no negative side effects, and deserves further
consideration as an additional agent for the treatment of
fibromyalgia. (J Clin Rheumatol 2001;7:72-78)
Key words: Fibromyalgia, CES, Electrotherapy, Microcurrent
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Cranial electrotherapy stimulation (CES)
is a U.S. Food and Drug Administration-recognized, drug-free treatment
for anxiety, depression, and insomnia. CES typically involves the
passage of microcurrent levels of biphasic electrical stimulation
across the head for from 20 minutes to an hour daily for a few days to
a few weeks, depending on the disorder being treated. The stimulation
levels applied in double-blind re-search studies are always below
sensation level, and are also often at this level during the normal
clinical use of CES.
Since CES arrived in the United States in the late 1960s, over 125
human and animal studies have been completed (1). |
Most
of the animal studies were performed to elicit mechanisms of action,
patterns of electrical current transfer through the brain, and related
physiologic concomitants to the stimulation. The studies by Pozos et
al. in dogs at the University of Tennessee Medical Center yielded
strong inferential evidence that CES worked to bring neurotransmitters
in the brain back into homeostatic balance, once he had mechanically
disrupted that balance (2).
Whereas many earlier clinicians doubted that an electric current of
such small intensity actually entered the brain, rather than just
spreading around the scalp tissue Early CES research on anxiety and
depression often used inpatient populations of addicts who were
experiencing the drug abstinence syndrome. |
It was in these studies that CES was found
invaluable in inducing medication-free reductions in anxiety and
depression while simultaneously improving sleep (4, 5). It was also
during these studies that the benefits of CES in improving cognitive
dysfunction were found (6-8). For example, it was discovered that the
24 months of total sobriety that were normally required to bring an
alcoholic patient's cognitive function back to normal could be
accomplished with 3 weeks of 45- 60-minute-daily CES treatments.
Cognitive recovery findings were later
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, East Brunswick,
NJ (ASL); Real World Health, Wall, NJ (M-MCR); Electromedical Products
International, Mineral Wells, TX (RBS).
Address correspondence to: Mei-Ming C. Raicer, MS, Research Clinician,
Real World Health, 1414 Francis Drive, Wall, NJ 07719. Fax:
732-280-5991. Copyright © 2001 by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc.
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Journal of Clinical Rheumatology • Volume 7, Number 2 • April 2001 |
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