Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation for the Management of Neuropathic Pain: A Narrative Review

BACKGROUND: Neuropathic pain (NP) is common and often resistant to conventional analgesics. Among different types of noninvasive brain stimulation techniques, transcranial direct current (tDCS) has been widely used mitigate in patients with NP. OBJECTIVE: The aim this study was review the effects tDCS on management various STUDY DESIGN: Narrative review. METHODS: A PubMed search conducted for articles published until October 1, 2020, using treat key phrase, pain, identify potentially relevant articles. following inclusion criteria were applied article selection: (1) studies involving NP (2) that Review excluded from analysis. RESULTS: total 524 identified. After reading titles abstracts assessing eligibility based full-text articles, 34 publications included our Overall, results suggest induced reduction due stroke or spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, trigeminal neuralgia. There insufficient evidence validate efficacy treating other painful conditions, such as complex regional syndrome, phantom origins. LIMITATIONS: did not include indexed databases than PubMed. CONCLUSION: may be beneficial stroke, Further are recommended NPs. KEY WORDS: Transcranial stimulation, neuropathic central post-stroke neuralgia