Transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation (TENS) for cancer pain

Transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation (TENS) for cancer pain

Introduction

The breast cancer is often associated with chronic pain, for which several treatment options are increasingly recognized. All patients, suffering from breast cancer, may experience a considerable amount of physical, as well as, psychological morbidity. The non-pharmacological interventions can potentially benefit all patients considerably, by being part of the multidisciplinary team approach. There is a large amount of literature available that compares the effectiveness and benefits of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), and transcutaneous spinal elctroanalgesia (TSE) in randomized control trials. Various studies conducted research on women of breast cancer, exhibiting chronic pains. The outcomes of the researches measure the pain report, relief of pains, interference pains, the associated depression and anxiety, mobility of the arm, and lastly, analgesic consumption. Studies suggest little evidence of being more effective; however, the pain report and improvement on quality of life, a finding that may be due to improvements from psychophysical aspect (Robb, Newham, & Williams, 2007, pp. 410-9).

Discussion

There are various studies available evaluating the effectiveness of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) for chronic pain associated with breast cancer. The targeted population for most studies consists of adult patients, suffering from breast cancer. In general, studies focused on those populations who have received pain related treatment for a period of more than three months, and still showed no further improvement in their health condition. In particular, studies highlight the diseased pain and treatment pain in women of breast cancer, in order to measure the outcome of TENS method, and its effectiveness against cancer pain relief. The important point to be considered is the lack of provided knowledge, from the authors, about the cancer type they have aimed to study and for which the TENS method is the most suitable (Robb, Oxberry, Bennett, & Johnson, 2009, pp. 746-53).

Various methods on Intervention for Chronic Pain

The TENS method is the latest non-pharmacological method of relieving chronic pain. Although, this newest method is still a topic of much debate among the researchers, various studies suggest that delivery of electrical stimulation through a TENS unit can significantly reduce the pain via inhibition of nociception at the presynaptic level of the dorsal horn. Hence, the TENS method limits the central transmission. Furthermore, the electrical stimulation on the skin activates the myelinated nerves fibers at a low threshold. The propagation of nociception is inhibited by the afferent input of these fibers, which are carried via small, unmyelinated C fibers. The transmission is blocked along these fibers to T cells, or target cells, which are located in the substantia gelatinosa of the dorsal horn (Kaye, 2011).

The TENS method can be effectively used for treating lower back pain, neurogenic pain, as well as, bladder incontinence (Robb, Oxberry, Bennett, & Johnson, 2009, pp. 746-53). Furthermore, several researches provide all relevant information relating to the beneficial points of TENS, to the health practitioners. Additional information about the various types of TENS has also been highlighted through the studies, giving detailed ...