Occipital Stimulation dropped FM pains from 8/10 to 5/10 while placebo only decreased it from 8/10 to 7/10.
Neuromodulation. 2013 Oct 7. doi: 10.1111/ner.12121. [Epub ahead of print]
Occipital Nerve Stimulation in Fibromyalgia: A Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Pilot Study With a Six-Month Follow-Up.
Plazier M, Dekelver I, Vanneste S, Stassijns G, Menovsky T, Thimineur M, De Ridder D.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24118206
- 11 subjects with 9/11 responding to stimulation
- double blind crossover study
- subjects must have been severe cases as initial pains looked more at 8/10 VAS
results:
- Long term improvement was 45%
- no significant side effects
- less than the 60% improvement found in a previous study but first studies always seem to have better results…
- Found with reductions in pain, that pain catastrophizing decreased as well suggesting it is in part at least driven by pain
Comment – still have someone with occipital neuralgia waiting 3+years for stimulator… a fall from 8 to 5/10 might not seem much but the pain scale is actually more logarithmic so 8 to 5 much less than 1/2 the pain