The opioid crisis continues to ravage the country, and last week news came out that more people die in this country from overdoses than from car accidents or gun violence, and half of those overdose deaths can be attributed to heroin or prescription painkillers. Yet for those who suffer pain, taking dangerous prescription painkillers seems like the only option to find relief. Researchers are now looking into a different kind of treatment that doesn’t involve medication to relieve pain.

The research team at the Pain Research and Intervention Center of Excellence at the University of Florida Clinical and Translational Science Institute has been looking at electrical stimulation as a way to manage pain. They studied 60 adults with lower back pain, 20 patients each from three separate age categories ranging from 18 year olds to 79 year olds. Lower back pain is a leading cause of workers’ compensation and can leave people unable to perform daily activities.

The therapy, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, is often called TENS. Researchers say the key to this therapy is making sure that the patient gets the right “dose” of stimulation. Everyone is different, and researchers have found that the older someone is the higher dosage they may need. Changes in our bodies as we age make it harder to tolerate pain and get relief.

The team administered electrical currents to patients through electrodes on their skin. They think that the electrical stimulations work to activate opioid receptors and make the patient feel good.

They found that across the board almost half of their patients felt an improvement in resting pain, and 34 percent of patients said they felt a reduction in movement pain. These researchers used a higher dose than studies done before them and had patients come for more sessions than previous studies. They said TENS could have different results depending on which kind of pain they are trying to treat and this study was limited to patients with lower back pain. Other researchers have looked at electrical stimulation applications in rheumatoid arthritis, knee osteoarthritis, or neuropathic pain but there is not yet conclusive evidence that these are all that much more beneficial than other pain therapy types.

The senior author of the study, Steven George, admitted that TENS therapy is “not a panacea” and will not completely stop pain, but it may be helpful to use with patients when they are performing certain movements. He said that it is a “low-risk option” in treating pain. Painkiller medications are powerful and relieve pain but they also can be addictive and have negative consequences.

The results of this study are encouraging but there is more work that needs to be done. Researchers have yet to do studies that compare the effects of TENS to the effects of painkillers to see if they are on the same level when it comes to relieving pain. It is also a pretty expensive therapy; however it could be a useful treatment for senior patients who would not do as well on prescription drugs as a younger person.