Analgesic effect of interference current in fibromyalgia patients [İnterferansi·yel akimin fi·bromi·yalji·li· hastalardaki· analjezi·k etki·nli·gi·]

Interference currents (IFC) are elicited by intersecting two alternating medium frequency currents; one of which has a constant frequency and the other is modulated rythmically. It has been documented that, IFC promotes positive treatment outcomes in a number of clinical conditions. This electrotherapeutic modalitiy has analgesic and trophic effects. It also enhances regeneration and reduces edema. In this prospective study, we aimed to evaluate the analgesic effect of IFC in fibromiyalgia syndrome which ise one of the most common chronic pain conditions. Fifty-six patients who had fibromyalgia syndrome were randomly divided into two groups of 28 patients each. The first group received a treatment program of hot pack, IFC with vacuum electrodes and posture exercises whereas the second group hadhotpack, vacuum therapy without IFC and postur exercises for ten days. No patients were allowed to use any analgesic drug during the treatment program. All patients were evaluated for pain using the visual analog scale (VAS), the Lattinen pain score and also for the number of tender points before and after the treatment. There were no significant differences according to age and disease duration between two groups. After treatment program, significant improvements were observed in all parameters in both groups (p0.05). It is concluded that, IFC therapy has no additional analgesic effect to fibromyalgia pain. It would be useful to assess this effect in larger series and different pain conditions