ArticlePain reports2026
Heterogeneity of treatment effects in transcranial direct current stimulation for knee osteoarthritis pain and symptoms.
Article in Pain reports, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Neural and psychophysical predictors of treatment response to transcranial direct current stimulation and mindfulness-based meditation for knee osteoarthritis pain.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Experimental Pain Phenotypes in Individuals With Symptomatic Knee Osteoarthritis: A Neural Network-Based Clustering Approach.Pain research & management · 2026Article
- Targeting Central Sensitization for Pain Management in Knee Osteoarthritis: A Narrative Review of Mechanisms and Clinical Applications of Neuromodulation.Journal of pain research · 2026Review
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
Abstract
Introduction: Although heterogeneity of treatment effects (HTEs) is commonly observed in clinical trials, it has received little attention in studies on transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Objectives: This study identified the presence of HTE in tDCS treatment among participants with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis (KOA) and explored participant characteristics associated with this heterogeneity. Methods: This secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial included 120 participants with symptomatic KOA who received 15 daily sessions of home-based 2-mA active or sham tDCS over 3 weeks. We used a multitrajectory analysis to identify distinct subgroups based on the longitudinal trajectories of KOA pain and symptoms from baseline to 3 months postintervention, capturing differential responses to tDCS. We then performed bivariate analyses to examine associations between trajectory groups and baseline demographic, clinical, and quantitative sensory testing characteristics. Results: In the active tDCS group, 2 distinct trajectories emerged: "low initial symptoms with significant improvement" (high responders; n = 28) and "high initial symptoms with minimal improvement" (low responders; n = 32). Compared to high responders, low responders had a higher body mass index, lower educational attainment, and greater pain catastrophizing (all Conclusion: Participants exhibited varying responses to active tDCS. The characteristics associated with HTE may inform the development of personalized stimulation protocols.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.