Table 1.
Summary of Scrambler Therapy trials
| Reports, by first author | Year | Patients | Condition | Results | Trial type | Comments | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marineo [13] | 2003 | 11 | Drug-resistant visceral pain | Substantial pain reduction | Prospective trial | |
| 2 | Sabato [24] | 2005 | 226 | Multiple chronic pain syndromes | 80 % of patients with greater than a 50 % pain reduction | Prospective trial | |
| 3 | Smith [30] | 2010 | 18 | Chemotherapy-induced neuropathy | Over 50 % reduction in pain | Prospective trial | 16 evaluable |
| 4 | Abdi [15] | 2011 | 10 | Back pain | 28 % reduction in pain | Prospective trial | Abstract only |
| 5 | Marineo [20] | 2011 | 52 | Post-herpetic neuralgia, spinal canal stenosis, and postsurgical neuropathic pain | Pain reduced more in Scrambler arm, than the control arm at 1 and 3 months (P < 0.0001) | Randomized, controlled trial | Open-label trial |
| 6 | Ricci [28] | 2012 | 82 | Various cancer and non-cancer pains | Mean pain scores dropped from 6.2/10 prior to treatment to 1.6 just after completing 10 treatment days to 2.9, 2 weeks after finishing treatment. | Prospective trial | 73 evaluable patients |
| 7 | Ghatak [18] | 2011 | 8 | Chronic low back pain | Pain score drop from 8.12 to 6.93; Drop in Oswestry Disability Index from 49.88 to 18.44 | Prospective trial | Open label |
| 8 | Sparadeo [27] | 2012 | 173 | Chronic pain >6 months | Marked pain reduction | Clinical practice experience | 91 provided 3–6 months follow-up |
| 9 | Coyne [17] | 2013 | 39 | Cancer pain syndromes, including chemotherapy-induced neuropathy | Significant pain reduction with 10 treatment days that largely lasted for 3 months | Prospective trial | |
| 10 | Smith [25] | 2013 | 10 | Post-herpetic neuralgia | 95 % pain reduction, that largely lasted for 3 months | Prospective trial data | Some patients were the same as in a previous trial [18] |
| 11 | Ko [19] | 2013 | 3 | Post-herpetic neuralgia | Marked pain reduction | Clinical practice experience | |
| 12 | Park [23] | 2013 | 3 | Cancer bone metastases | Marked pain reduction | Clinical practice experience | |
| 13 | Campbell [16] | 2013 | 14 | Chemotherapy-induced neuropathy | No differences between active and placebo arms | Prospective, double- blind, placebo-controlled trial | Abstract only |
| 14 | Pachman [22] | 2014 | 37 | Chemotherapy-induced neuropathy | Average pain decreased by 53 % at end of treatment and benefit largely remained for 10 weeks after completion. | Prospective trial | Decrease in tingling and numbness, too. |
| 15 | Sparadeo [26] | 2014 | 91 | Variety of pain syndromes | Substantial pain reduction | Clinical practice experience | Consecutive patients; Some patients were the same as in a previous trial [30] |
| 16 | Moon [21] | 2014 | 147 | Variety of pain syndromes | Clinical practice experience | ||
| 17 | Starkweather [29] | 2015 | 30 | Low back pain | Significant improvements in active vs control group for: (1) worse pain and pain interference states; (2) pain sensitivity measures, and (3) differential mRNA expression of 17 pain genes | Prospective, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial | |
| 18 | Notaro [31] | 2015 | 25 | Bone and visceral metastases | All patients experienced at least a 50 % drop in pain scores, with average duration of response of 7.7 weeks; improved sleep performance | Prospective trial | |
| 19 | Compagnone [33] | 2015 | 201 | Variety of pain syndromes | Reduction from mean pain score of 7.41 at baseline to 1.6 following treatment | Retrospective cohort | |
| 20 | Lee [32] | 2016 | 20 | Various cancer-related pain syndromes | Mean pain score decreased from 7.4 to 3.7 by visit 3 | Prospective, single-arm |