Whole-Body Photobiomodulation Therapy for Chronic Pain: a Feasibility Trial

Chronic pain is a common long-term condition that can affect any area throughout the body. Individuals suffering with chronic pain often have associated fatigue, sleep and mood disturbances.

Current treatments for chronic pain include a variety of both medicine-based approaches and non-medical approaches such as exercise and psychology treatments. Patients often take a combination of medications such as antidepressants and strong medications like morphine - which are not always effective, and often associated with several troublesome side effects. Despite physical activity being a common and helpful treatment, evidence shows that patients with chronic pain can find it difficult to engage for a variety of reasons. It would be helpful to see if other non-medication based approaches will be an acceptable treatment to those suffering with chronic pain.

Photobiomodulation (PBM) therapy describes a safe, non-invasive low-energy light therapy that has been successful in treating a variety of chronic pain conditions. Cells absorb light to produce a series of reactions that culminate in pain relief, reduced inflammation, and tissue repair. Most studies examining effects of PBM have consisted of a small hand-held probe focused on specific painful areas. There are a cohort of chronic pain conditions that encompass widespread throughout the back, neck and joints, such as fibromyalgia (FM). Whole-body PBM therapy is able to treat a large area of the body in a short space of time.

The main purpose of the study is to determine feasibility, with a view to guiding a definitive Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT), in terms of: feasibility of eligibility criteria, recruitment rates, acceptability of trial device in the chronic pain population, and acceptability of outcome measures.