Click on the picture to view a close-up of the acupuncture needles

March 2, 1999
Web posted at: 7:53 p.m. EST (0053 GMT)

In this story: The second most common complaint Short-term relief, not a long-term cure RELATED STORIES, SITES

DALLAS (CNN) -- The lingering pain from Ruth Stevenson's fall down a flight of steps was so bad, it forced her to choose between her back and her church.

Usually, the church lost.

"I got to the point where I wasn't sleeping at all. I didn't even go to church for almost two years," she said.

Stevenson is up and around again, however, largely due to a procedure tested at a Texas hospital. The procedure -- percutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, or PENS -- is a kind of electrified acupuncture, in which doctors send an electrical stimulus through the needles to nerve fibers.

"PENS therapy involves the insertion of very fine needles -- they are actually 32 gauge, about the size of a hair -- into the soft tissue or the muscle," said Dr. Paul White of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. The findings of Texas Southwestern are published in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association.

The electrical pulses relieve pain and encourage the release of endorphins. Doctors have traditionally performed a similar procedure using electrode pads.

"Through the skin you have to use much higher currents, which can cause significant discomfort to the patient, and the skin actually limits the total amount of stimulation that can be achieved," White said.

The second most common complaint

Patients describe the feeling as the sensation of tapping, raindrops falling or a massage.

It differs from acupuncture in that the probes are placed in areas that Western medicine has determined contain nerve endings. While the points might be the same as acupuncture points at times, it would be by chance, the researchers said.

Except for the common cold, more people see doctors for back pain than any other illness. About 6 million people in the United States suffer from back pain. Most of the time, it lasts only a few days. But one in six people experience severe back problems, which can add up to more than $11.5 billion a year in lost wages and disability payments.

And chronic back pain can have serious effects in sufferers' daily lives. Stevenson said she even contemplated suicide because the pain was so intense. She had tried other therapies, including surgery, without result.

"I got to where I could not lay on my right side and where I couldn't lay on my back," she said.

Short-term relief, not a long-term cure

Doctors warn PENS is no cure for major back problems, but an alternative to some pain medications. Their hope is to provide short-term pain relief and improve patients' physical activities and mobility in the long term.

It has worked for Stevenson, allowing her to return to the pews.

"I'm attending church every Sunday now," she said. "I'm just doing a lot of things. I'm feeling so much hope for everything."

Health Correspondent Holly Firfer and Reuters contributed to this report.