RT Journal Article
T1 Bilateral Motor Cortex tDCS Effects on Post-Stroke Pain and Spasticity: A Three Cases Study
A1 Molero Chamizo, Andrés
A1 Salas Sánchez, Ángeles
A1 Álvarez Batista, Belén
A1 Andújar Barroso, Rafael Tomás
AB Stroke patients frequently suffer from chronic limb pain, but well-suited treatmentapproaches have been not established so far. Transcranial direct current stimulation(tDCS) is a safe and non-invasive brain stimulation technique that alters cortical excitability,and it has been shown that motor cortex tDCS can reduce pain. Some data also suggestthat spasticity may be improved by tDCS in post-stroke patients. Moreover, multiplesessions of tDCS have shown to induce neuroplastic changeswith lasting beneficial effectsin different neurological conditions. The aim of this pilot study was to explore the effect ofmultiple anodal tDCS (atDCS) sessions on upper limb pain and spasticity of strokepatients, using a within-subject, crossover, sham-controlled design. Brain damage wasof similar extent in the three patients evaluated, although located in different hemispheres.The results showed a significant effect of 5 consecutive sessions of atDCS, compared tosham stimulation, on pain evaluated by the Adaptive Visual Analog Scales -AVAS-, andspasticity evaluated by the Fugl-Meyer scale. In two of the patients, pain was completelyrelieved and markedly reduced, respectively, only after verum tDCS. The painimprovement effect of atDCS in the third patient was considerably lower compared tothe other two patients. Spasticity was significantly improved in one of the patients. Thetreatment was well-tolerated, and no serious adverse effects were reported. Thesefindings suggest that multiple sessions of atDCS are a safe intervention for improvingupper limb pain and spasticity in stroke patients, although the inter-individual variability is alimitation of the results. Further studies including longer follow-up periods, morerepresentative patient samples and individualized stimulation protocols are required todemonstrate the efficacy and safety of tDCS for improving limb symptoms in thesepatients.
PB Frontiers Media
SN 1663-9812
YR 2021
FD 2021-04
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10272/19894
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10272/19894
LA eng
NO Molero Chamizo, A., Salas Sánchez, Á., Álvarez Batista, B. ... Andújar Barroso, R. (2021). Bilateral Motor Cortex tDCS Effects on Post-Stroke Pain and Spasticity: A Three Cases Study. Frontiers in Pharmacology, 12. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2021.624582
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
RD 31 may 2026