3. Results
low back pain, cervical neck pain, pain, chronic neck pain, Depression
A total of 54 patients with chronic neck pain or low back pain were included in the study. Thereof, 35 patients (11 men, 24 women) were finally analyzed. Among these patients, seven patients had cervical pain only, 14 patients had low back pain solely, and 14 patients had both. All patients primarily exhibited local back pain, without or with little radicular pain. The subset of 21 patients with chronic neck pain (i.e., seven patients with cervical neck pain and 14 with both neck- and low back pain) were divided into the electrotherapy group (For the demographic description of the patients, see Among the 35 patients, 12 (34.29%) did not take any pain medication. Of the remaining 23 patients, 22 took non-opioid medication regularly, 6 of whom took a combination with opioids and 8 of whom took antidepressant medication. One patient took antidepressants only. Depression was previously diagnosed in 7 patients out of 35 (1 patient in control in control; 4 in the control group; 2 in the therapy group; 20% in total). No increase or decrease in the intake of rescue pain medication was reported by any of the patients investigated during or after the weekly sessions.The average, minimum and maximum NRS of cervical and low back pain, at rest and under activity showed no significant changes before and after the therapy sessions in any of the groups. (The mean and standard deviation of baseline (pre) and post session (post) values are stated below.)