Première enquête nationale sur les techniques non médicamenteuses

We conducted a national survey with all the pain treatment centers in France between August and September 2005. This survey concerned drug-free treatment of chronic pain and was a preliminary phase to an assessment of these techniques requested by the General Health Direction (direction générale de la Santé [DGS]) for multicentric clinical trials. The questionnaire, sent to the 25 CETD (pain treatment and assessment centers), concerned three drug-free techniques: transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), relaxation and hypnosis and the associated indications. Out of the 24 replies, TENS and/or relaxation conducted by trained staff was regular practice in 19 centers. Only 14 centers used hypnosis on a regular basis. The most commonly reported indications for the use of these techniques were as follows: headache, neuropathic pain, osteoarthritic pain and fibromyalgia. Electrical nerve stimulation was mostly proposed for neuropathic and osteoarthritic pain and relaxation for headache. Working from this data, two multicentric clinical trials were proposed, the first for an assessment of TENS for chronic lumbar pain or lumbar radicular pain, the second for an assessment of relaxation for severe migraine. These trials are currently under way and the results will be published at a later date.