Efectividad de las TDCS en fisioterapia para el tratamiento del dolor crónico. revisión sistemática

Abstract

Today more than 17% of the Spanish population suffers from chronic pain. Forty percent of primary care consultations are related to pain of musculoskeletal origin and account for nearly 3% of the country's GDP. Chronic pain is very complicated to treat since only 40-50% of patients with conventional and pharmacological treatment have favourable results, but these have limited effects on the plasticity of the nervous system and the long-term treatment of pain. Therefore, neuromodulation techniques not only reduce pain and reverse abnormal plasticity of the nervous system, but also help to enhance other types of treatments. tDCS are a type of non-invasive neuromodulation whose functioning consists of applying low intensity galvanic direct current through electrodes that are placed in different regions of the brain such as the pain matrix changing the neuronal electrical potential since it is capable of reaching the cortical and subcortical layer of the cerebral cortex by applying current. Its function will be to modulate the neuronal activity producing an analgesic and inhibitory effect that is able to revert the abnormal excitability of the pain areas. For this reason, tDCS are useful for the treatment of pain, since they modulate the spontaneous neuronal activity that can generate long-term neuroplastic changes producing improvements in pain, fatigue, and quality of life for those people who suffer from chronic pain.