Should non pharmacological and non-invasive interventions be used to treat neuropathic pain in adults with spinal cord injury? - A Systematic Review

• Autor(a) principal: Almeida, Carlos Alberto Sousa
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.22/17270
• topic: Neuropathic pain; Non pharmacological interventions; Non-invasive interventions; Spinal cord injury; Systematic review

Spinal Cord Injuries (SCI) results in a permanent or temporary alteration of the motor, sensory and/or autonomic functions, frequently leading to neuropathic pain. To deal with this comorbidity, several non-pharmacological and non-invasive (NP-NI) interventions have been developed. However, their efficacy is still uncertain. The aim of this study was to systematically synthetize the available evidence assessing the efficacy of NP-NI interventions for treating neuropathic pain in people with SCI. An electronic search was conducted in five databases (Pubmed, Scopus, Cochrane Central, Web of Science and EBSCO) and trials registry databases, in addition to a manual search strategy to retrieve additional records. The review included randomized experimental studies including adults with SCI, in any stage of the condition. Data on the efficacy of the interventions was narratively synthetized. Of the 4853 identified references, 24 were included with a total of 653 participants with SCI and exclusively neuropathic pain, mostly male and with paraplegia. These studies investigated the Effect of 13 groups of NO-NI interventions with diferente protocols and methodological limitations. Seven diferente assessment scales were analyzed, with neuropathic pain being the primary outcome in 21 studies. Such high heterogeneity impaired the conduction of meta-analysis for any of interventions. Promising results were found regarding short, médium and long-team analgesic Effect of NP-NI interventivos on neuropathic pain in people with SCI. However, i tis not yet possible to safely state that these interventions are really effective. Further studies with homogeneous protocols and methodological quality are still needed.