Whole body vibration improves symptoms of diabetic peripheral neuropathy

Whole Body Vibration (WBV) is an innovative therapy that may be effective for reducing chronic pain associated with diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN), Current treatments for DPN pain have demonstrated questionable efficacy and significant risk of adverse events. Preliminary research has indicated that WBV may be effective for controlling chronic pain symptoms of DPN.

20 participants (9 male, 11 female), 58.51 ± 10.69 years old, and BMI of 33.60 ± 8.20 kg/m2 were randomly assigned to a sham-treatment (n = 8) or WBV treatment (n = 12) group in a pre-post design. Pain was assessed with a 10-point verbal analog pain scale (VAS). Treatment consisted of three sessions/week with at least one day between sessions, 12 min/session (four bouts of 3 min), for four weeks. Control was established with a sham vibration protocol for two weeks in which the participants were blinded to the treatment.

VAS scores of the treatment group decreased significantly at both 2 and 4 weeks (p = 0.019). The treatment group was found to have a significantly lower VAS score than the controls at two weeks (p = 0.033). After cessation of WBV vibration treatment, participants reported reduced DPN-related pain from 1 to 5 weeks later.

WBV is effective for reducing DPN-associated pain over a two- and four-week interval. This was the first study to demonstrate this using a sham vibration control. We further saw a persistence in pain reduction beyond the day of treatment, indicating a potential chronic effect of WBV treatment.