The Efficacy of Adding Electromagnetic Therapy or Laser Therapy to Medications in Patients With Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy

Abstract

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a common disease with a highly significant burden among the Saudi population. This study aimed to investigate the effects of adding either magnetic or laser therapy to medications in patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN). Methods: Seventy-one medically controlled diabetic patients were randomly assigned to 1) Magnetic group: 26 patients were exposed to magnetic therapy for 20 minutes/session, 2 sessions/week, for 3 months 2) Laser group: 25 patients were exposed to laser therapy with intensity 5.7 J/cm2 for 30 minutes/session, 2 times/week, for 3 months. 3) Drug group: 20 patients received only the regular medications for diabetic control and pain analgesia. Pain and neuropathy were assessed by the visual analog scale (VAS) and the Toronto Clinical Neuropath Scoring System (TRCNSS). Conduction velocities and amplitudes of peroneal and sural nerves were measured by electromyography. Results: The results showed significant increases in conduction velocities and amplitudes in both magnetic and laser groups in parallel with significant reductions in TRCNSS. Non-significant changes were obtained only after using only medications (P>0.05). The mean values of VAS reduced significantly in the three groups. The least significant differences showed significant changes among the three groups, whereas non-significant differences were obtained between both magnetic and laser groups. Conclusion: There were non-significant differences between both magnetic and laser therapy groups. Addition of either magnetic or laser therapy to medications could bring extra positive benefits to patients with DPN. Both magnetic and laser therapy can be applied with medications for the treatment of patients with DPN.

The effectiveness of complementary and alternative medicine therapy in reducing pain in diabetic neuropathy: A systematic review

“…Fifteen studies were declared eligible and approved by the authors and two co-authors. However, two studies are not applicable using CASP (Shanb et al, 2020;Win, Fukai, Nyunt, & Linn, 2020).…”

“…Four studies demonstrated the longest duration of the intervention: undergoing a combination of resistance-aerobic training for 16 consecutive weeks (Parsa, Hosseini, Bije, & Nia, 2018), following a low-fat plant-based diet for 20 weeks (Bunner et al, 2015); and undergoing 2 mL topical Citrullus colocynthis therapy for 36 weeks (Heydari, Homayouni, Hashempur, & Shams, 2016). Magnetic therapy was administered for 20 minutes/session for 36 weeks (Shanb et al, 2020) and underwent foot reflexology therapy 30 minutes/day for 48 weeks (Ibrahim & Rizk, 2018).…”

“…Six studies used the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) (Chatterjee et al, 2019;Izgu et al, 2020;Kessler et al, 2020;Parsa et al, 2018;Shanb et al, 2020;Win et al, 2020), two studies used the Neuropathic pain scale (NPS) (Chatterjee et al, 2019;Heydari et al, 2016). Two studies used the numeric rating scale (NRS) (Chao et al, 2019;Heydari et al, 2016), Two studies used The McGill Main Questionnaire (Bunner et al, 2015;Vakilinia et al, 2020), two studies used the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) (Nathan et al, 2017) and the BPI modified painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy (BPI-DPN Q4) (Hussain & Said, 2019), Two studies used the Needs Assessment of Neuropathic Symptoms Pain Scale ( LANSS) (Ibrahim & Rizk, 2018;Jamal et al, 2019) Effects of CAM on DN Pain Based on the 13 out of 15 studies revealed that CAM therapy could reduce DN pain with 11 types of CAM therapy, namely pain severity decreased after administration of MBSR from baseline -1.92(-3.74 to -1.10) (p<0.001) (Nathan et al, 2017), DN pain decreased after giving Mindfulness Meditation 2.2 +0.1 (95% CI -2.50 to -1.80) (p<0.01) (Hussain & Said, 2019), pain severity was lower after administration of Relaxation VAS 4.0 (p<0.05) (Izgu et al, 2020), pain level decreased after administration of Abzan (-12,984), (95% CI -25,148 to -0.819) (p=0.034) (Vakilinia et al, 2020).…”

"Natural Patterns and Magnetic and Mental Processes of Coronavirus Activation and Neutralization"

“…Today it is difficult to find a disease in the treatment of which one or another type of magnetotherapy could not be used. Softness of exposure, wide possibilities for personalization and accessibility of the method made magnetotherapy a popular type of treatment and prevention [15][16][17][18].…”

Effects of electrotherapy in neuropathic pain management in patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy: A narrative review

“…Electromagnetic fields also have analgesic, anti-inflammatory, anti-swelling action and cause vasodilation. They are considered a safe complementary treatment for patients with DPN, however, their application is more limited [10] . The aim of this review is to present research data on the aforementioned electrotherapy tools and their results in the treatment of pain in patients with DPN.…”