Abstract
Objective
The present study examined the effects of home-based remotely supervised transcranial direct current stimulation on quantitative sensory testing measurements in older adults with knee osteoarthritis. Participants were hypothesized to experience improved pain measurements over time.
Design
Open-label, single-arm trial.
Setting
Southeast Texas between March and November 2018 at a nursing school and participant homes.
Subjects
Older adults (aged 50–85 years) with self-reported unilateral or bilateral knee osteoarthritis pain who met eligibility criteria set by the American College of Rheumatology.
Methods
The intervention was applied with a constant current intensity for 20 minutes every weekday for two weeks (10 total sessions). Quantitative measures of pain were collected three times over 10 days (days 1, 5, and 10) and included heat threshold and tolerance, pressure pain threshold, punctate mechanical pain, pain, and conditioned pain modulation. Analyses used nonparametric tests to evaluate differences between day 1 and day 10. Generalized linear mixed models were then used to evaluate change across all three time points for each measure. Bayesian inference was used to provide the posterior probability of longitudinal effects.
Results
Nonparametric tests found improvements in seven measures, and longitudinal models supported improvements in 10 measures, with some nonlinear effects.
Conclusions
The home-based, remotely supervised intervention improved quantitative measurements of pain in older adults with knee osteoarthritis. This study contributes to the growing body of literature supporting home-based noninvasive stimulation interventions.
Treating refractory obsessive–compulsive disorder with transcranial direct current stimulation: An open label study
