ArticleSpinal cord series and cases2024
Immediate effect of alone and combined virtual reality, gait-like muscle vibration and transcranial direct current stimulation on neuropathic pain after spinal cord injury: a pilot study.
Article in Spinal cord series and cases, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Pooled it
- The Combined Use of Non-Invasive Neurostimulation with Interactive Digital Technologies in Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation: A Scoping Review.Journal of rehabilitation medicine · 2026Article
- Virtual Reality Interventions for Spinal Cord Injury-Related Neuropathic Pain: A Comprehensive Scoping Review of Multidimensional Outcomes.Journal of pain research · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
STUDY
designQuasi-experimental pilot study.
objectivesEvaluate the immediate effect of virtual reality (VR), gait-like muscle vibration (MV) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) combined or alone on neuropathic pain in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI).
settingInpatient rehabilitation centre.
methodsFour participants (two women and two men) with neuropathic pain after SCI participated in the pilot study. All participants received one session per week for four weeks. Each session started with a single-blind administration of active or sham tDCS (20 min) delivered in a pseudo-randomized order, followed by three interventions applied in a pseudo-randomized order (10 min each): gait-like muscle vibration only, watching a walking self-avatar in VR only and the combination of muscle vibration and VR. The intensity of pain was evaluated using a numeric rating scale (0-10, minimal clinically important difference: 2 points) before and after each stimulation.
resultsParticipants reported significant reduction of pain (reduction of two points or more) in 4/7 stimulations where VR was associated with muscle vibration, in 1/8 for VR-alone stimulations and in 1/7 for MV-only stimulations. Significant change in pain was found in 1/8 sham tDCS, but not after active tDCS.
conclusionsOur pilot study showed immediate pain relief when a walking-avatar VR stimulation was associated with gait-like muscle vibration. Even though previous studies supported tDCS for pain reduction, we did not observe any changes in pain after tDCS, likely due to its application once a week. Further research is needed to strengthen these promising results.
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