[Intervention study on subacute and chronic pain in primary care: an approach to the effectiveness of neural therapy]. / Estudio de intervención sobre el dolor subagudo y crónico en atención primaria: una aproximación a la efectividad de la terapia neural.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of NT in reducing pain and minimising use of analgesics in patients. DESIGN: Before and after intervention study. SETTING: Llefià Primary Health Care centre in Badalona (Barcelona). PARTICIPANTS: Eighty-two patients between the ages of 25 and 85 years old, who suffered pain that did not disappear after a month. MAIN MEASUREMENTS Data was collected to evaluate any change in pain and the use of analgesics in patients before intervention and then afterwards, at 2 weeks, 3 months and 6 months. This was conducted by means of interviews and use of the Visual Analogue Pain Scale (VAS). RESULTS: Mean VAS pre-treatment 7.94 (SD 1.68), mean VAS after two weeks 4.63 (SD 2.79), after 3 months 3.73 (SD 3.17), and after 6 months 3.48 (SD 3,27) (P<.001 in the 3 comparisons, using the Wilcoxon-test for matched data). As regards analgesic use after treatment, 74.4% of patients reduced it after 2 weeks, 76.8% after 3 months and 80% after 6 months. CONCLUSIONS: Neural therapy can be effective in reducing pain, as well as the use of analgesics. Further clinical trials would be needed to confirm this assertion.