Static Magnetic Field Therapy for Pain

Discussion

Static Magnetic Field (SMF) therapy has been studied as a treatment for pain post SCI. Panagos et al. (2004) in a pre-post study involving eight individuals, on average 12 years post injury, found that placing a static field magnet of 500 gauss over a self-identified ‘trigger point’ resulted in patients reporting less stabbing, sharp and tender pain (p<0.05); however, there was no significant change noted on a VAS pain severity scale. These results are severely limited by the uncontrolled study design and relatively few study participants.

Conclusion

There is level 4 evidence (from one pre-post study: Panagos et al. 2004) that using a static field magnet helps to reduce reports of sharp, stabbing nociceptive shoulder pain but does not significantly reduce the VAS score of pain in individuals with a SCI.