Statistical Analysis of the Effect of Pulsed Electromagnetic Field on Pain-Related Outcomes in Patients with Fibromyalgia

Yerkin G. Abdildin, Suienish Sultangazin, Dmitriy Viderman

2024

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DOI 10.1109/dasa63652.2024.10836606
Data confidence 70 medium
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Abstract

This paper studies the effect of a pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) in managing fibromyalgia patients, that is, patients with chronic pain disorder. We conducted a statistical analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing two groups of patients, the treatment group (PEMF) and the control group. We found significant improvement in pain intensity (mean difference (MD) with 95% confidence interval (CI) is -21.16 [−31.71, -10.61], p-value < 0.0001), fibromyalgia intensity (MD with 95% CI is -12.25 [−20.84, -3.66], p-value = 0.005), and anxiety (MD with 95% CI is -12.02 [−17.38, -6.65], p-value < 0.0001) in PEMF group after treatment. These three medical outcomes were measured on a 0–100 scale and our results were based on six RCTs with 813 patients. Because our meta-analysis is based only on RCTs, it provides the highest level of evidence and should be useful for decision making. However, the considerable heterogeneity among the studies in pain intensity and fibromyalgia intensity implies that the PEMF may not be effective in some populations. Overall, PEMF has a positive effect on patients with fibromyalgia, but more RCTs are recommended in the future to study its impact in detail.