A novel nonpharmacological intervention – breathing-controlled electrical stimulation for neuropathic pain management after spinal cord injury – a preliminary study

This study explores a new method called breathing-controlled electrical stimulation (BreEStim) to help manage neuropathic pain in people with spinal cord injuries. Neuropathic pain is a chronic pain condition caused by nerve damage that is difficult to treat. The researchers compared BreEStim to conventional electrical stimulation (EStim) and looked at different dosages of BreEStim to see how well they worked to reduce pain. Participants were asked to rate their pain levels using a visual analog scale (VAS). The results suggested that BreEStim was more effective than EStim in reducing pain and that the pain relief lasted longer. However, increasing the amount of BreEStim did not necessarily lead to better results. The study suggests that BreEStim could be a useful alternative treatment for chronic neuropathic pain in SCI patients.

• 1
  BreEStim showed significantly greater analgesic effects compared to EStim. Reduction in VAS score was significantly greater after BreEStim (2.6±0.3) than after EStim (0.8±0.3) (P<0.001).
• 2
  The analgesic effect lasted significantly longer after BreEStim (14.2±6 hours) compared to EStim (1.9±1 hours) (P=0.04).
• 3
  There was no dose-response effect observed between BreEStim120 and BreEStim240, indicating that increasing the number of stimuli did not result in a greater analgesic effect.