For purposes of clarity, therefore, it is helpful first to understand the more prominent treatment modalities, followed by their relationship to the major forms of chronic pain.
Many patients report acupuncture relieves their pain for hours, even days.
The practice is controversial, with some medical specialists dismissing it as pseudoscience and others acknowledging that it seems to excite endorphin systems of pain control. Supporters note that some experiments show increased levels of endorphins in the cerebrospinal fluid following acupuncture, and that naloxone injections appear to inhibit the pain relief acupuncture seems to produce. Skeptics and traditionalists call such claims spurious and cite other studies showing no long-term benefit from acupuncture. Therefore, the practice, though seemingly thriving commercially, remains on the outer limit of current medical acceptability and awaits greater investigation under controlled conditions before it can truly be embraced by mainstream modern medicine. TENS involves applying brief pulses of electricity to nerve endings under the skin.