Very low frequency and low intensity magnetic fields in a different treatment of disease: Chronic low back pain in senile degenerative arthritis: A double blind study

Abstract

A group of elderly patients (all females) affected by chronic low back pain in senile degenerative arthritis (SDA) who had no results from previous pharmacological and physiotherapeutical treatments, has been proposed for extremely low intensity and low frequency magnetic field therapy (MFT). This group was homogeneous for age (from 70 to 87) and pathology. In order to evaluate the beneficial effect of P.M.F. in a real, difficult-to-treat disease such as SDA, patients were assigned randomly to 2 groups. The first group was treated with a solenoid device, generating a magnetic field with an intensity of 58 Gauss and a frequency of 50 Hz, for 1 hour daily for 12 days. The same schedule was applied to the second group, but no magnetic field was generated (placebo group). A physician, not aware of the group the patient came from, made a daily evaluation of the spine functional capacity. Evaluation of pain intensity was performed day by day by the patients themselves, with the aid of a visual analog and a semantic scale. One month after the therapy a functional evaluation was performed. A critical evaluation of the efficacy of this kind of therapy was made by both physicians and patients at the end of the treatment. On the basis of the results achieved, the authors conclude that the P.M.F. employed for this study certainly have a biological effect on structures affected by the disease studied. Significant differences in pain recrudescence between the treated group and the placebo group during the first stages of treatment provide evidence for such biological action. Although satisfactory, and sometimes unexpected, results were achieved in patients suffering from a disease being so difficult to treat as the one in question, the authors conclude that the schedules followed possibly do not provide the optimum posology.