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Clinical study on electroacupuncture plus interferential current therapy for chronic fatigue syndrome
Fang Huang, Xiong Chen, Li-zhi Zhou, Ping Huang, Li-hong Guo
Journal of Acupuncture and Tuina Science, June 2014, Volume 12, Issue 3, pp 156-159
Objective
To observe the clinical efficacy of electroacupuncture plus interferential current therapy (ICT) in treating chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), and to explore the mechanism.
Methods
Sixty eligible CFS patients were randomized into a treatment group and a control group, 30 in each group. The treatment group was intervened by electroacupuncture plus ICT, while the control group was by electroacupuncture alone. The therapeutic efficacies were evaluated after 2 treatment courses and compared between the two groups.
Results
The recovery rate and total effective rate were respectively 43.3% and 93.3% in the treatment group, versus 20.0% and 80.0% in the control group. There were significant differences in comparing the recovery rate and total effective rate between the two groups (P<0.05), showing that the recovery rate and total effective rate in the treatment group were higher than those in the control group.
Conclusion
Electroacupuncture plus ICT can produce a remarkable efficacy in treating CFS.
There is also an article about this study here.
The above study used the CDC diagnostic criteria for selecting the 60 ME/CFS patients.
The stated recovery rate using this interferential current therapy (ICT) treatment was 43.3%. The study authors define recovery as "the major symptoms and complications were completely gone, and the patient can adapt to normal social life and work".
Although they also got a 20% recovery rate from using electroacupuncture alone (they used plain electroacupuncture as a control). The fact that this study claimed a 20% recovery rate just from electro-acupuncture, and a 43.3% recovery using ICT, does seem grossly over-exaggerated. There is something wrong with these figures. If any therapy could really achieve a 20% recovery rate for ME/CFS, people would be singing about it from the rooftops.
Nevertheless, ICT acupuncture may provide some benefits for ME/CFS, even if it does not actually lead to recovery.
The interferential current therapy employed in this study is a technique of using two electrical currents of slightly different frequencies in combination, in order to create a beat frequency. For example, using two frequencies of 4000 Hz and 3900 Hz together creates a beat frequency of 100 Hz, the difference between the two frequencies.
Interferential current therapy is specifically designed to allow electrical currents to penetrate into the deeper tissues of the body. ICT was developed by Dr Hans Nemec in Vienna in the 1950s. The principles of ICT are described in this paper:
Interferential current therapy
G C Goats
Br J Sports Med. Jun 1990; 24(2): 87–92.
"Direct current and low-frequency alternating currents (> 1 kHz) encounter a high electrical resistance in the outer layers of the skin. This makes the treatment of deep structures painful because a large transcutaneous current must flow so that adequate current passes deeply. Alternating currents of medium (> l kHz to < lO kHz) or high frequency (> lO kHz) meet little resistance (due to a marked reduction in the effects of skin capacitance upon current flow) and penetrate the tissues easily, although such currents generally oscillate too rapidly to stimulate the tissues directly. These difficulties were overcome in the early 1950s with the development of interferential current therapy. The equipment produces two alternating currents of slightly differing medium frequency and is used widely to induce analgesia, elicit muscle contraction, modify the activity of the autonomic system, promote healing, and reduce oedema."
An introductory slide presentation on interferential current therapy can be found here.
The area of the body targeted by the interferential current therapy in this study was the spinal area on the back. The patients were given a total of 20 sessions of ICT, via acupuncture needles, with each session lasting 30 minutes. Frequencies around the 5000 Hz mark were used.
Note that you do not necessarily have to use acupuncture needles to apply interferential current therapy; you can apply ICT using TENS machine type sticky electrode pads. So I wonder if the benefits manifested in this study might more easily be obtained by using ICT with electrode pads, rather than acupuncture needles.
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