Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is a very popular chronic pain treatment in society. Almost every family has a TENS machine. Besides mass marketing by medical companies, many physicians constantly recommend TENS for their patients. The business of pain and TENS machines is a billion dollar industry. There are TENS machine which cost a few hundred and there are others which cost a few thousand dollars. While in some cases a prescription is required to get a TENS machine, one can easily buy a TENS from any one of the online cyberspace pharmacies without a prescription. However, despite its wide usage the benefits of TENS is still in question.
A recent review by Cochrane examined both high frequency and low frequency studies in the literature. There were no restriction on where the studies were done or how many people were involved.
A large amount of data was extracted and various types of pain measures were analyzed by the researchers. About 25 studies were analyzed and only nine were found to be controlled. From the nine controlled studies, 7 studies showed no benefit of TENS. Each time a blind and randomized study was analyzed, TENS worked just as well as fake electrical stimulation (just holding a wire to the skin).
As of today in Jan 2010, there is no evidence that TENS does anything for people with chronic pain. There is not a single randomized blind study which has categorically shown that TENS works to decrease pain.
So for the time being TENS cannot definitely not be recommended for pain control. Some health care professionals who recommend these devices often have shares in these companies or are paid to give out positive reviews. The next time you get prescription for a TENS machine from a physician, go get a second opinion. Of course there will always be some who argue otherwise; for these non believers go read Cochrane reviews on this topic. Consumers should save their hard earned money for things that work and not on scam devices.
For those who hate medical jargon- in plain English- TENS is junk therapy.
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