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Combined Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation andTranscutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation for Treatmentof Chronic Back Pain: A Double-Blind, Repeated MeasuresComparisonStan R. Moore, PhD, Joseph Shurman, MD

ABSTR ACT. Moore SR, Shurman J. Combined neuromus-cular electrical stimulation and transcutan eous electrical nervestimulation for treatme nt of chronic back pain: a double-blind,repeated measures comparison. Arch Phys Med Rehabil1997;78:55-60.

Object ives: A prel iminary examinat ion of NMES and com-bined NMES /TENS for the management of chronic back pain.Design : Double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized re-peated measures.

Subjects and Sett ing: Consecut ive sample of 24 chronicback pain pat ients (16 women and 8 men) at tending an outpa-tient pain clinic (mean age 51.67 ye ars, mean pain duration3.83 years). All t reatments were administered at home.Intervent ions: Subjects self-administered NMES , combinedNME UTEN S, TENS , and placebo treatments. Each treatmenthad a duration of 5 consecut ive hours per day over 2 consecut ivedays, with a 2-day hiatus between treatments to minimize carry-over ef fects.Main O utcome Measures: Pain reduct ion w as assessedthrough pretreatment to posttreatment dif ferences on the PresentPain Intens ity (PPI) scale, and a visual analogue scale of PainIntensity (VAS-I). Posttreatment pain rel ief was assessed usinga visual analogue scale of Pain Relief (VAS-R ).Results: Combined treatment, N MES, and TENS each pro-duced signif icant pretreatment to posttreatment reduct ions inpain intensity as measured by both the PPI and VAS-I (p