A recent study reveals that the noninvasive brain stimulation is not effective on neuropathic pain in patients suffering from spinal cord injury.

In this study, depression, anxiety levels and pain intensity were evaluated to observe the effects of noninvasive brain stimulation on patients with spinal cord injury. Randomized controlled trials showing the comparison between sham stimulation and noninvasive brain stimulation were studied.

Eleven studies were included in which collective examination showed no considerable benefit of repetitive cranial electrotherapy stimulation, transcranial magnetic stimulation and transcranial direct current stimulation on the decrease of neuropathic pain following spinal cord injury.

Moreover, there were no benefits observed with noninvasive brain stimulation in comparison to sham stimulation for the depression levels. However, it provided considerable decrease in anxiety levels suddenly following the treatment.

The examination of subgroup demonstrated that the only cranial electrotherapy stimulation offers considerable benefits in decreasing anxiety levels between the three categories of noninvasive brain stimulation.

It was concluded that the noninvasive brain stimulation provides no considerable benefits to patients with spinal cord injury. There were no effects observed in the improvement of depression and neuropathic pain. On the other side, it was found that the cranial electrotherapy stimulation may be helpful for anxiety management.