A preliminary report on adjuvant analgesic efficacy of HANS in opioid tolerant patients with cancer pain

• Published in: Chinese journal of cancer research 2014-04, Vol.26 (2), p.174-182
• Main Authors: Li, Xiaomei, Zhu, Jianhua, Li, Pingping, Zhu, Guangqing, Wu, Xiaoming, Chen, Huoming, Zhao, Huixia, Wang, Wei, Zhang, Ying, Xiao, Wenhua, Liu, Duanqi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: HANS; Original; 患者; 生活质量; 疼痛; 癌症; 耐受; 药物治疗; 镇痛
• ISSN: 1000-9604; 1993-0631
• DOI: 10.3978/j.issn.1000-9604.2014.04.02

Objective： To observe the adjuvant analgesic efficacy of Han＇s Acupoint Nerve Stimulator （HANS） in opioid tolerant patients with cancer pain. Methods： A prospective non-controlled study was conducted. Opioid tolerant patients with cancer pain were enrolled and treated with both routinely analgesics and adjuvant HANS （2/100 Hz for 30 min/d, 5 d on and 2 d off for two weeks）. Cancer pain, quality of life （QOL）, anxiety and depression were assessed before enrollment and on d 8 and d 15 with the BPI-C, EORTC QLQ-C30, and self-rating anxiety scale （SAS）/ self-rating depression scale （SDS）, respectively; the therapeutic frequency of breakthrough pain （BP） and daily opioid dose were also recorded. Results： Totally 47 patients meeting the inclusion criteria participated in this study; 43 patients completed the two-week treatment and assessment. The mean scores of patient＇s ＂worst＂ and ＂least＂ pain intensity assessed with BPI-C decreased significantly on d 8 and d 15; the therapeutic frequency of BP also significantly decreased; but the average daily dose of opioids did not change significantly. For the nine symptoms in EORTC QLQ-C30 assessment, the mean scores of pain, fatigue, constipation and insomnia were significantly lower on d 8 and d 15 compared with baseline; the mean scores of the overall health status, nausea/vomiting and the incidence rates of both anxiety and depression also decreased significantly on d 15. Conclusions： To opioid tolerant patients with cancer pain, adjuvant treatment with HANS could improve pain release and patients＇ QOL by decreasing the severity of pain, fatigue, constipation, insomnia and other concomitant symptoms; it could also decrease the incidence rates of anxiety and depression.