The Effects of Lower Limb Vibration Therapy on Neuropathy Pain in Diabetic Patients

Environmental neuropathy is a major cause of disability in diabetic patients. Pain is a major symptom in neuropathy which appears in more than 30% of diabetic patients. The whole body vibration therapy is one of the non-pharmacological methods in pain control in environmental neuropathy. The present study has been conducted with the aim to investigate the effects of lower limb vibration therapy on controlling the pain of diabetic neuropathy. The present study is a pre/post interventional research which has been conducted on 36 patients suffering from diabetic neuropathy. The subjects have been introduced into the study with simple sampling. At the beginning of the study، demographic traits and pain severity have been measured and registered by the researcher. Vibration therapy has been done on neuropathic limbs for two weeks. This task has been performed two times a day، each lasting for 10 minutes. Ultimately; after a two-week intervention، the patients’ pain severity has been measured again by visual scale. The mean and standard deviation of the participants’ age was 52. 38±11. 61 years. The majority of the participants were female (26 subjects; 72%). The mean and standard deviation of the patients’ pain before the vibration therapy was 5. 21±1. 37 and after three periods of vibration therapy was reduced to 4. 30±1. 41. In other words، pain severity has been reduced after vibration therapy which had a meaningful difference (p=0. 001) using paired T-test. Lower limb vibration therapy can reduce the diabetic neuropathic pain، thus can be utilized as a method of diabetic pain relief.