PST: Pulsed Signal Therapy

Do you suffer from neuropathy or have you had painful shingles last for months at a time? Have you been diagnosed with fibromyalgia? There may be a way to finally help relieve most of that pain. It's a relatively new way to administer a form of treatment that's been around for millennia. It's acupuncture with a twist. It's called pulse stimulation treatment, or PST.

PST was invented or developed by Dr. Josef C. Szeles in Vienna. He found that applying acupuncture to the ear and then adding a small electrical current helped to significantly reduce pain in his patients. Well, in 2006 the FDA approved this device for use in the United States. The manufacturer of the device was planning to start selling them to pain clinics across the U.S. in October of 2008. In fact, there may be some near you right now.

What is PST? It is a treatment that is administered through the use of a small device that's worn behind one ear. Small titanium acupuncture needles are inserted into the cartilage along the ear, much like in traditional acupuncture. The difference though is that in PST, a small electrical current is sent from the device through the needles. Apparently, the amount of charge that's used is the perfect amount to cause the release of endorphins, that feel-good hormone most of us have heard about at one point or another.

It's thought that somehow this small current administered over a three hour period redirects the brain's focus away from the sensitization it's developed to the neuropathic pain. The device alternates between three hours of current and a break of three hours and is worn for a period of four days. The sensation the device causes is described as a tapping feeling. So, it's certainly not painful and doesn't seem to have any other side effects. Most patients appear to need four to six separate four-day sessions before reaching their peak pain reduction.

According to the "Family Practice News", Vol. 38, No 20 (10/15/08), Dr. Robert Bonakdar, a family practice doctor using PST, has seen pain reductions of 50% in 60% to 75% of the patients he's treated with PST. His patients seem to be noticing a change in their pain scores of anywhere between 33% and 50%. That means for someone whose perception of pain is at a score of seven, that person's perception of pain is now between 3.5 and 4.6. That's quite a change and may mean the difference between just managing to survive and actually functioning fairly well.

So, if you suffer from chronic neuropathic type pain and the treatments and medications you've used haven't seemed to help, you might want to consider talking to your doctor about PST. Although your doctor may not be able to administer the treatment to you, she or he may be able to refer to a pain clinic. You have nothing to lose and maybe a whole lot to gain.

Family Practice News you will find a wealth of information dealing with Pulsed Signal Therapy.