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September 5, 2026Physiotherapy Research International

Effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation and Individualized Physical Therapy on Pain and Function in Individuals With Chronic Knee Pain: A Pilot Study

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Authors

MBMariah BalinskiChicago Department of Public HealthLFLaura Frey‐LawUniversity of IowaSMSangeetha MadhavanUniversity of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

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Overview

Randomized trial finds no significant primary pain or functional improvements from tDCS in chronic knee pain, indicating insufficient evidence for routine use.

Key Points

  • To determine whether combining transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) with individualized physical therapy improves pain and functional outcomes in individuals with chronic knee pain.
  • Conducted a preliminary pragmatic, triple-blinded, randomized, sham-controlled clinical trial (NCT06132412) in an outpatient orthopedic physical therapy clinic.
  • Randomized 30 participants with chronic knee pain to receive 5 sessions of active tDCS or sham tDCS followed by individualized physical therapy.
  • Assessed primary patient-centered pain and functional measures alongside secondary outcomes, including pressure pain thresholds (PPT) and quadriceps strength.
  • No statistically significant between-group differences were observed for primary patient-centered pain and functional outcomes.
  • Active tDCS led to a significant improvement in lateral joint line PPT percent change (p < 0.05) and significant multivariate effects on 3-site and 5-site PPT cluster change scores (p < 0.05).
  • Exploratory responder analysis showed the active tDCS group was 12.8 times more likely to achieve the minimum detectable change in quadriceps strength than the sham tDCS group (p < 0.05).

Cite This Study

Balinski et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a9bd49d6b95aff0620ec5edhttps://doi.org/10.1002/pri.70333
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Also Consider

Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context:

  1. 1Effects of transcranial direct current stimulation on pain and function in patients with knee osteoarthritis: A systematic review and meta‐analysis2026
  2. 2TDCS for parkinson‘s disease disease-related pain: A randomized trial2024 · 12 citations
  3. 3Effects of transcranial direct current stimulation on neuropathic pain: A systematic review with meta-analysis and meta-regression2026 · 1 citations
  4. 4Transcranial direct current stimulation combined with rehabilitation training for chronic spinal pain: a systematic review and Meta-analysis2026
  5. 5Effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on pain and pain-related outcomes: an umbrella review2025