{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,20]],"date-time":"2026-10-20T18:32:54Z","timestamp":1792521174454,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":28,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,4,23]],"date-time":"2023-04-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1682208000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Medicina"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background and Objectives: Chronic neck pain and low back pain are common conditions in high-income countries leading to social and medical problems such as invalidity and decreased quality of life. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of supra-threshold electrotherapy on pain level, subjective feeling of disability, and spinal mobility in patients with chronic pain in the spinal cord. Materials and Methods: 11 men and 24 women with a mean age of 49 years were randomly divided into three groups: group 1, \u201ctherapy\u201d: supra-threshold electrotherapy was applied on the whole back after electrical calibration; group 2, \u201ccontrol\u201d: electrical calibration without successive electrotherapy; group 3, \u201ccontrol of control\u201d: no stimulation. Sessions were performed once a week and six times in total, each lasting 30 min. The numeric pain rating scale (NRS), cervical and lumbar range of motion (ROM), as well as disability in daily live were investigated before and after the sessions using questionnaires (Neck Disability Index, Roland Morris Questionnaire, Short-form Mc Gill Pain Questionnaire (SF-MPQ)). Results: Spinal mobility improved significantly in the lumbar anteflexion (baseline mean, 20.34 \u00b1 SD 1.46; post session mean, 21.43 \u00b1 SD 1.95; p = 0.003) and retroflexion (baseline mean, 13.68 \u00b1 SD 1.46; post session mean, 12.05 \u00b1 SD 1.37; p = 0.006) in the group receiving electrotherapy. Pain levels measured by the NRS and disability-questionnaire scores did not differ significantly before and after treatment in any of the groups. Conclusions: Our data indicate that regular supra-threshold electrotherapy for six times has a positive effect on lumbar flexibility in chronic neck pain and low back pain patients, whereas pain sensation or subjective feeling of disability remained unchanged.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/medicina59050823","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,4,24]],"date-time":"2023-04-24T04:01:23Z","timestamp":1682308883000},"page":"823","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":12,"title":["Effect of Regular Electrotherapy on Spinal Flexibility and Pain Sensitivity in Patients with Chronic Non-Specific Neck Pain and Low Back Pain: A Randomized Controlled Double-Blinded Pilot Trial"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"59","author":[{"given":"Asami","family":"Naka","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Special Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine, Vienna General Hospital, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Clea","family":"Kotz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Special Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine, Vienna General Hospital, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Edith","family":"Gutmann","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Special Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine, Vienna General Hospital, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sibylle","family":"Pramhas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Special Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine, Vienna General Hospital, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Regina Patricia Juliane","family":"Schukro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Special Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine, Vienna General Hospital, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Robin","family":"Ristl","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Section for Medical Statistics, Center for Medical Data Science, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Othmar","family":"Schuhfried","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physical Medicine, Rehabilitation and Occupational Medicine, Vienna General Hospital, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Richard","family":"Crevenna","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physical Medicine, Rehabilitation and Occupational Medicine, Vienna General Hospital, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5674-1380","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sabine","family":"Sator","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Special Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine, Vienna General Hospital, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,4,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"736","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(16)30970-9","article-title":"Non-specific low back pain","volume":"389","author":"Maher","year":"2017","journal-title":"Lancet"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"971","DOI":"10.1126\/science.150.3699.971","article-title":"Pain mechanisms: A new theory","volume":"150","author":"Melzack","year":"1965","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"197","DOI":"10.2217\/pmt.14.13","article-title":"Using TENS for pain control: The state of the evidence","volume":"4","author":"Vance","year":"2014","journal-title":"Pain Manag."},{"key":"ref_4","first-page":"1094352","article-title":"Effects of Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation on Proinflammatory Cytokines: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis","volume":"2018","author":"Fonseca","year":"2018","journal-title":"Mediat. 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