Repeated thermal therapy improves outcomes in patients with chronic pain

The purpose of this study is to clarify the effects of repeated thermal therapy in patients with chronic pain. Forty-six chronic pain patients were assigned to group A (multidisciplinary treatment, n = 24) or group B (combination of multidisciplinary treatment and repeated thermal therapy, n = 22). Thermal therapy was performed with 60 °C far-infrared ray dry sauna for 15 min and was then kept at bed rest with a blanket for 30 min once a day, 5 days a week for a total of 20 sessions. The number of pain behavior and anger score significantly decreased after treatment in both groups. After treatment, the number of pain behavior was slightly smaller (p = 0.07) and anger score was significantly lower in group B than those in Group A (p = 0.05). Two years after treatment, 17 patients (77%) in group B returned to work compared with 12 patients (50%) in group A (p < 0.05). These results suggest that a combination of multidisciplinary treatment and repeated thermal therapy may be a promising method for treatment of chronic pain.