Effects of One Session of a-tDCS on Women with Chronic Low Back Pain

The present study aimed to investigate the effects of a-tDCS on pain score in women with Chronic Low Back Pain (CLBP). A total of 10 women with CLBP participated in the current double-blind sham-controlled cross-over study. Each participant received one session of a 20-minute, 0.3 mA tDCS with a current density of 0.1mA/cm2 on M1 and DLPFC, concurrently. Pain intensity and electrical pain threshold were assessed immediately prior to and after the treatment. In addition, the disability was assessed before and one week after the treatment. Shapiro-Wilks goodness-of-fit test was used for normality and dependent t-Test was used for data analysis. Values of p ≤ 0.05 were considered as statistically significant. The results showed no effect of active or sham treatment on the pain intensity, disability, and pain threshold (p>0.05). The mean difference between before and after active treatment were 0.9 (p=0.7) for pain, 5.6 (p=0.7) for disability, and-0/16 for pain threshold (p=0.1). These values were 0.4, 2.4, and -0.73 for sham treatment with p-value greater than 0.05. The method studied proved to have no significant effect on pain intensity of women suffering from CLBP; however, this finding may be related to the limited sessions of the treatment.