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To evaluate the effect of adding interferential current stimulation to exercise on pain, disability, psychological status and range of motion in patients with neck pain.
A single-blinded randomized controlled trial.
Primary care physiotherapy units.
A total of 84 patients diagnosed with non-specific mechanical neck pain. This sample was divided into two groups randomly: experimental ( = 42) versus control group ( = 42).
Patients in both groups had a supervised therapeutic exercise programme, with the experimental group having additional interferential current stimulation treatment.
The main measures used were intensity of neck pain according to the Visual Analogue Scale; the degree of disability according to the Neck Disability Index and the CORE Outcome Measure; anxiety and depression levels according to the Goldberg scale; apprehension as measured by the Personal Psychological Apprehension scale; and the range of motion of the cervical spine. The sample was evaluated at baseline and posttreatment (10 sessions/two weeks).
Statistically significant differences between groups at posttreatment were observed for Visual Analogue Scale (2.73 ± 1.24 vs 4.99 ± 1.56), Neck Disability Index scores (10.60 ± 4.77 vs 18.45 ± 9.04), CORE Outcome Measure scores (19.18 ± 9.99 vs 35.12 ± 13.36), Goldberg total score (6.17 ± 4.27 vs 7.90 ± 4.87), Goldberg Anxiety subscale, Personal Psychological Apprehension Scale scores (28.17 ± 9.61 vs 26.29 ± 11.14) and active and passive right rotation.
Adding interferential current stimulation to exercise resulted in better immediate outcome across a range of measures.