PainRelief.com Interview with:
Kathleen Sluka, PT, PhD, FAPTA
Professor of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science
Carver College of Medicine
Iowa City, Iowa

PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study? Would you briefly describe the condition of fibromyalgia?

Response: My team has been studying TENS for decades. We initially started by performing studies to understand how TENS produces analgesia using animal models. We show that TENS increases our body’s inhibition and reduces excitability of pain  After determining the mechanisms, we used this information to develop and test the most effective parameters of the stimulation in randomized controlled clinical trials, including fibromyalgia.  In these studies we discovered that TENS reduced movement-evoked pain. 

Fibromyalgia is a complex condition characterized by chronic widespread pain and accompanied by fatigue, nonrefreshing sleep, and cognitive dysfunction. Fibromyalgia pain is exacerbated with movement that contributes to reduced function. Treatment guidelines recommend nonpharmacologic approaches with exercise as a first-line intervention. However, adherence to exercise is often poor due to movement-evoked pain, which presents a significant barrier to participation.

As physical therapists are primary providers of exercise to those with chronic pain, we asked if TENS would reduce movement-evoked pain in a real-world setting by implementing TENS treatment into outpatient physical therapy clinics. This allowed us to test if adding TENS to standard physical therapy in a real-world setting reduced movement-evoked pain.

Last Updated on April 8, 2026 by PainRelief.com