Trial reportCerebellum (London, England)2019
Cerebellar Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (ctDCS) Ameliorates Phantom Limb Pain and Non-painful Phantom Limb Sensations.
Trial report in Cerebellum (London, England), 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 55 citations in OpenAlex.
- Beyond traditional therapies: a network meta-analysis on the treatment efficacy for chronic phantom limb pain.Regional anesthesia and pain medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Transcranial direct current stimulation combined with exercise therapy for chronic low back pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Pooled it
- Cerebellar tDCS and pain modulation: a critical integrative and systematic review.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Pooled it
- Effects of neuromodulation techniques on pain and depression in patients with phantom limb pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Pooled it
- Brain stimulation targets for chronic pain: Insights from meta-analysis, functional connectivity and literature review.Neurotherapeutics : the journal of the American Society for Experimental NeuroTherapeutics · 2024Pooled it
- Transcranial direct current stimulation in the management of phantom limb pain: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials.European journal of physical and rehabilitation medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation to Improve the Dysfunction of Descending Pain Modulatory System Related to Opioids in Chronic Non-cancer Pain: An Integrative Review of Neurobiology and Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2019Pooled it
- Cortical excitability and analgesic effects of multisite transcranial direct current stimulation targeting the motor cortex and cerebellum in fibromyalgia.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- Cerebellar tDCS combined with augmented reality treadmill for freezing of gait in Parkinson's disease: a randomized controlled trial.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2024Trial
- Alterations in functional connectivity in patients with non-specific chronic low back pain after motor control exercise: a randomized trial.European journal of physical and rehabilitation medicine · 2024Trial
- Effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (t-DCS) of the Cerebellum on Pain Perception and Endogenous Pain Modulation: a Randomized, Monocentric, Double-Blind, Sham-Controlled Crossover Study.Cerebellum (London, England) · 2023Trial
- Exploring the Role of the Cerebellum in Pain Perception: A Narrative Review.Pain and therapy · 2025Review
- A new vision of the role of the cerebellum in pain processing.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2025Review
- Optimising Electrode Montages in Conventional Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation and High-Definition Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation of the Cerebellum for Pain Modulation.Brain sciences · 2025Article
- Phantom Limb Pain Management.The Journal of hand surgery · 2025Review
- Cerebellar Transcranial AC Stimulation Produces a Frequency-Dependent Bimodal Cerebellar Output Pattern.Cerebellum (London, England) · 2025Article
- Cerebellar transcranial AC stimulation produces a frequency-dependent bimodal cerebellar output pattern.Research square · 2024Article
- Cerebellar Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation: A Frontier in Chronic Pain Therapy.Journal of personalized medicine · 2024Review
- Re-examining the Mysterious Role of the Cerebellum in Pain.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2024Review
- Long-term analgesic effect of trans-spinal direct current stimulation compared to non-invasive motor cortex stimulation in complex regional pain syndrome.Brain communications · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Phantom limb pain (PLP) is a disabling and intractable sensation arising in about 80% of patients after amputation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the possibility to modulate nociceptive processing and pain perception with cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation (ctDCS) in patients suffering from painful and non-painful phantom limb sensations. Fourteen upper limb amputees underwent ctDCS (anodal or sham, 2.0 mA, 20 min per day, 5 days a week). Clinical scores and electrophysiological parameters were assessed before tDCS, at the end of the 5-day treatment, 2 and 4 weeks later. Laser-evoked potentials (LEPs) were obtained from the stump using a Nd:YAP laser by pulses with short duration (5 ms) and small diameter spots (5 mm). Changes in visual analogue scores (VAS) were evaluated (chronic pain, paroxysmal pain, stump pain, phantom movements, phantom sensations). Anodal polarization significantly dampened LEP amplitudes (N1, p = 0.021 and N2/P2, p = 0.0034), whereas sham intervention left them unchanged. Anodal ctDCS significantly reduced paroxysmal pain (p < 0.0001), non-painful phantom limb sensations (p < 0.0001) and phantom limb movements (p = 0.0003), whereas phantom limb and stump pain did not change compared to the sham condition. Anodal ctDCS significantly improves both paroxysmal pain and non-painful phantom limb sensations, which are likely induced by maladaptive changes in the sensorimotor network and posterior parietal cortex respectively.
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What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.