Patients with chronic pain often report concomitant disruption in other important QOL areas including sleep interference, changes in mood, increased stress levels and overall reduction in the amount of physical activity behavior. This study sought to identify the relationship between exposure to PEMF over a four- month (132 day) period with changes pain intensity reduction and to then examine the relationship between changes in pain intensity to key QOL variables.
This study was designed as a retrospective analysis of patient reported outcomes from 321 Veterans (sample of convenience) having numerous diagnoses within the neuromusculoskeletal domain treating with PEMF therapy. Study participants elected to self- report scores on the five domains of interest using the standardized (VA Hospitals pain interference scale) DVRPS instrument at baseline followed by seven other time points within a 132- day treatment trial. Patient care coordinators collected the data telephonically at each respective time point. Data were de-identified prior to receipt and analysis.
A repeated measures MANOVA test was used to identify significant differences over time for each dependent variable and between each attribute. Significant differences were found within each dependent variable and across all time points, suggesting an association between PEMF use and an improvement in outcome scores across all five variables of interest (p .001). A Spearman Rank Coefficient test examined the association between each of these variables and was significant (p 0.001) for all variables with effect sizes (adjusted r values) varying between 0.41 - 0.91, p 0.001.
A four-month course of PEMF treatment was associated with significantly reduced pain intensity scores, and concomitant improvements in QOL metrics; mood, stress, sleep and physical activity. A more robust controlled clinical trial is recommended to further explore the relationship between PEMF exposure and chronic pain intensity reductions while considering the downstream effects of pain reduction on subsequent measures of QOL.
Physical medicine and rehabilitation providers are a critical part of the chronic pain management team and need to know which interventions have demonstrated evidence for effectiveness. Our study findings suggest that PEMF therapy can be a useful addition to a Physical Therapy based chronic pain management intervention program. The real- world evidence (RWE) approach used in this study helps to address the concern that modern research paradigms often neglect patient perspective and focus primarily on efficacy without enough emphasis on effectiveness.
Chronic Pain Syndrome
Quality of life
