Clinical and experimental evaluation of cranial TENS in the U.S.: a review

A review of studies evaluating therapeutic applications of cranial TENS in clinical populations reveals frequent use of unreliable self-report outcome measures, insufficient description of treatment protocol, invalid double-blind and placebo conditions and often a lack of adequate description of the electrical parameters used. A review of the experimental literature indicates that cranial TENS is capable of modulating central nervous system activity. It is suggested that the inconclusiveness of the clinical literature may be due to incomplete research design rather than to the questionable nature of the treatment, and that cranial TENS merits continued research.