Effectiveness of transcranial alternating current stimulation for controlling chronic pain: a systematic review

Min Cheol Chang; Marie-Michèle Briand; Mathieu Boudier-Revéret; Seoyon Yang

doi:10.3389/fneur.2023.1323520

Effectiveness of transcranial alternating current stimulation for controlling chronic pain: a systematic review

Front Neurol. 2023 Dec 20:14:1323520. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2023.1323520. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Min Cheol Chang¹, Marie-Michèle Briand^{2

3

4}, Mathieu Boudier-Revéret^{4

5}, Seoyon Yang⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, College of Medicine, Yeungnam University, Daegu, Republic of Korea.
² Division of Trauma, Research Center, Hôpital du Sacré-Cœur de Montréal, CIUSSS du Nord-de-l'Île-de-Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada.
³ Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Hôpital du Sacré-Cœur de Montréal, CIUSSS du Nord-de-l'Île-de-Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada.
⁴ Faculty of Medicine, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada.
⁵ Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Montreal Health Center, Montréal, QC, Canada.
⁶ Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, School of Medicine, Ewha Woman's University Seoul Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

Abstract

Background: Chronic pain is common, disruptive, and often treatment-resistant. Hence, researchers and clinicians seek alternative therapies for chronic pain. Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) is an emerging neuromodulation technique that non-invasively modulates neural oscillations in the human brain. tACS induces pain relief by allowing the neural network to restore adequate synchronization. We reviewed studies on the effectiveness of tACS in controlling chronic pain.

Methods: The PubMed, SCOPUS, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases were systematically searched for relevant studies published until December 6, 2023. The key search phrase for identifying potentially relevant articles was [(Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation OR tACS) AND pain]. The following inclusion criteria were applied for article selection: (1) studies involving patients with chronic pain; (2) tACS was applied for controlling pain; and (3) follow-up evaluations were performed to assess the degree of pain reduction after the application of tACS.

Results: We identified 2,330 potentially relevant articles. After reading the titles and abstracts and assessing eligibility based on the full-text articles, we included four articles in our review. Among the included studies, tACS was used for fibromyalgia in one study, low back pain (LBP) in two studies, and migraine in one study. In the study on fibromyalgia, it did not show a better pain-reducing effect of tACS compared with sham stimulation. Two studies on LBP showed conflicting results. In migraine, tACS showed a positive pain-reducing effect 24-48 h after its application.

Conclusion: There is insufficient research to draw a conclusive judgment on the effectiveness of tACS in controlling chronic pain. More studies across various chronic pain-related diseases are required for a definitive conclusion.

Keywords: chronic pain; fibromyalgia; low back pain; migraine; review; transcranial alternating current stimulation; treatment.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (no. 00219725).