Towards a Biophysical Management of Neck Pain and Disability

摘要

Neck pain is a leading cause of disability, ranking steadily among the first places of the global burden of disease and consequently very common to face in the primary care setting. Therefore, any additional treatment suitable to its effective and quick management has to be carefully taken into consideration. It has been previously shown that the integration of an electromagnetic paradigm into biology and medicine could offer an additional potential when translated into clinical application. Positive effects were previously reported in the treatment of articular pain in a three-arm randomized controlled trial matching a biophysical protocol, a placebo, and a drug (ibuprofen), as well as in the treatment of low back pain in a pilot report and in a consecutive series of patients with three different levels of low back pain and disability. Following these findings, we decide to test the possible effectiveness of a similar biophysical protocol in the management of neck pain. A total of 50 patients presenting neck pain in a primary care setting were participated in this study. Being informed about the aim and methods of the study, all patients provided a signed informed consent. The neck pain and disability questionnaire was used to assess the clinical pain and disability. A single session, 2-step protocol, was administered to each patient to record the endogenous input signals at the neck region of each patient and of delivering the therapeutic electromagnetic output signals on an electromagnetic, full body, carpet (Med Select 729, Wegamed, Germany). In both therapy steps an Electro Magnetic Information Transfer Through Aqueous System procedure was synchronously used to record the same pattern of therapeutic signals onto a commercial available aqueous solution (Nomabit Base, Named, Italy). All recruited patients completed the study. The baseline score was 61.5± 15.5 and the final one 29.1 ± 15.9, 3 months later, with a statistical significant decrease (p < 0.0001). Th