Wagner Zhenya, Steinberg Holger
Forschungsstelle für die Geschichte der Psychiatrie, Klinik und Poliklinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie, Medizinische Fakultät, Universität Leipzig, Semmelweisstr. 10, 04103, Leipzig, Deutschland.
Schmerz. 2025 Jun;39(3):185-193. doi: 10.1007/s00482-023-00746-1. Epub 2023 Aug 24.
Headache can be a widespread symptom as well as a disorder in itself. Headache syndromes such as migraine cause a lot of distress, disability and overall socioeconomic costs. Pharmacological treatments are often limited in their efficacy as well as due to side effects. The therapeutic application of electricity for this medical indication was a relevant field of research in the 19th century and-in the form of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)-is still widely studied today. This paper provides an overview of publications from the late 19th century (as the era of discovery and success of electrotherapy) as well as contemporary studies investigating the usage of weak currents for the treatment or prophylaxis of headache. Our results show a large number of highly favorable reports of treatment successes. However, the number of cases analysed is often rather small and the forms of electric stimulation applied were often highly heterogeneous. In summary, electric stimulation appears to be a promising field of research and a possible therapeutic agent for the treatment of headaches; however, further research is necessary, especially into the details of the stimulation techniques applied and the various indications in which it may be of use.
头痛既可以是一种广泛存在的症状，其本身也是一种病症。偏头痛等头痛综合征会造成极大的痛苦、功能障碍以及整体社会经济成本。药物治疗在疗效方面以及由于副作用往往存在局限性。针对这一医学适应症的电疗法在19世纪是一个相关研究领域，并且以经颅直流电刺激（tDCS）的形式至今仍在广泛研究。本文概述了19世纪后期（作为电疗法的发现和成功时代）的出版物以及当代研究，这些研究探讨了弱电流在治疗或预防头痛方面的应用。我们的结果显示了大量关于治疗成功的高度有利报告。然而，分析的病例数量往往相当少，并且所应用的电刺激形式往往高度异质。总之，电刺激似乎是一个有前景的研究领域以及治疗头痛的一种可能的治疗手段；然而，有必要进行进一步研究，特别是针对所应用的刺激技术细节以及其可能有用的各种适应症。
