Migraines

A study with 110 patients found that applying TENS at the base of the head (occipital nerve) decreased the duration of headaches in migraine sufferers. It also had low rates of side effects, making it a possible option for to patients that did not want to take medications for their migraines.

Similarly, a study in 57 patients found that using a TENS unit reduced both the number and intensity of pain episodes in a headache and migraine sufferers.

Another study found that the use of TENS for headaches decreased medication use and helped patients manage their chronic migraine symptoms better.

Finally, another study in migraine patients reported that TENS treatment reduced the total amount of days with a headache. 66% of the patients in this study decided to continue using a TENS unit to keep their headaches at bay, although the patients who followed the TENS directions the best reported the greatest benefits at a follow-up.

Mood

A technique called Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation — or “tVNS” for short — is a method of using TENS to stimulate the vagus nerve (which is done by hooking the TENS unit up to specific parts of the ear).

This TENS technique has shown some promising early data on helping with psychological disorders such as depression. Limited studies have found that tVNS may reduce symptoms of depression — for example, by stimulating the regions of the brain associated with reward processing and motivation — and leads to improvements in depression patients’ overall level of symptoms.