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OPEN
received: 26 March 2015 accepted: 14 October 2015 Published: 10 November 2015
Novel Noxipoint Therapy versus Conventional Physical Therapy for Chronic Neck and Shoulder Pain: Multicentre Randomised Controlled Trials Charles C. Koo1,2,3, Ray S. Lin3, Tyng-Guey Wang4, Jau-Yih Tsauo5, Pan-Chyr Yang2,6, Chen-Tung Yen7 & Sandip Biswal8 As chronic pain affects 115 million people and costs $600B annually in the US alone, effective noninvasive nonpharmacological remedies are desirable. The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy and the generalisability of Noxipoint therapy (NT), a novel electrotherapy characterised by site-specific stimulation, intensity-and-submodality-specific settings and a immobilization period, for chronic neck and shoulder pain. Ninety-seven heavily pretreated severe chronic neck/shoulder pain patients were recruited; 34 and 44 patients were randomly allocated to different treatment arms in two patient-and-assessor-blinded, randomised controlled studies. The participants received NT or conventional physical therapy including transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (PT-TENS) for three to six 90-minute sessions. In Study One, NT improved chronic pain (−89.6%, Brief Pain Inventory, p
OPEN
received: 26 March 2015 accepted: 14 October 2015 Published: 10 November 2015
Novel Noxipoint Therapy versus Conventional Physical Therapy for Chronic Neck and Shoulder Pain: Multicentre Randomised Controlled Trials Charles C. Koo1,2,3, Ray S. Lin3, Tyng-Guey Wang4, Jau-Yih Tsauo5, Pan-Chyr Yang2,6, Chen-Tung Yen7 & Sandip Biswal8 As chronic pain affects 115 million people and costs $600B annually in the US alone, effective noninvasive nonpharmacological remedies are desirable. The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy and the generalisability of Noxipoint therapy (NT), a novel electrotherapy characterised by site-specific stimulation, intensity-and-submodality-specific settings and a immobilization period, for chronic neck and shoulder pain. Ninety-seven heavily pretreated severe chronic neck/shoulder pain patients were recruited; 34 and 44 patients were randomly allocated to different treatment arms in two patient-and-assessor-blinded, randomised controlled studies. The participants received NT or conventional physical therapy including transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (PT-TENS) for three to six 90-minute sessions. In Study One, NT improved chronic pain (−89.6%, Brief Pain Inventory, p
