Mayo Clinic - Study Concludes No Difference Between Ionized Bracelet and Placebo for Musculoskeletal Pain Relief

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News from Mayo Clinic in Rochester

Tuesday, November 12, 2002

Study Concludes No Difference Between Ionized Bracelet and Placebo for

Musculoskeletal Pain Relief

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Nov. 8, 2002 ‹ Researchers from Mayo Clinic in

ville, Fla., report wearing ionized bracelets for the treatment of

muscle and joint pain was no more effective than wearing placebo bracelets

in the November 2002 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Authors of the published study randomly assigned 305 participants to wear an

ionized bracelet for 28 days and another 305 participants to wear a placebo

bracelet for the same duration.

The study volunteers were men and women 18 and older who had self-reported

musculoskeletal pain at the beginning of the study. Neither the researchers

nor the participants knew which volunteers wore an ionized bracelet and

which wore a placebo bracelet. Bracelets were worn according to the

manufacturer¹s recommendations. Both types of bracelets were identical and

were supplied by the manufacturer, QT, Inc.

Participants self-reported their pain for each location where they felt it

with a score of 1 to 10 before wearing a bracelet. They self-reported their

pain again after wearing a bracelet for one day, three days, seven days, 14

days, 21 days and 28 days. Researchers were interested in both the change in

the self-reported pain score for the location of greatest pain and the

change in the sum of the pain scores for all self-reported painful

locations.

Both groups reported significant improvement in pain. However, researchers

found no difference in the amount of self-reported pain relief between the

group wearing the ionized bracelets and the group wearing the placebo

bracelets. The study authors conclude that the equivalent, subjective

improvement in pain scores calls into question the true benefit of using an

ionized bracelet.

Principal investigator Dr. Bratton, from the Department of Family

Medicine, says the study was important because so many patients are

interested in alternative medicine. " We need to look at what our patients

are doing for their various problems, " he says, " and undertake objective,

controlled studies to prove whether or not these treatments are beneficial. "

The study authors say that although their goal was not to assess the

effectiveness of placebos, their results did support the benefit of placebos

in the treatment of pain. They also note that 80 percent of the 409

participants who answered an initial survey question about the use of

ionized bracelets stated they believed the bracelets can reduce joint or

muscle pain.

The study was conducted between 2000-2001. It won the Florida Academy of

Family Physicians first-place award for research in October. Mayo Clinic

Proceedings is a peer-reviewed and indexed general internal medicine

journal, published for more than 75 years by Mayo Foundation, with a

circulation of 130,000 nationally and internationally.

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Mayo Clinic is a multispecialty medical clinic in ville, Fla. The

staff includes 328 physicians working in more than 40 specialties to provide

diagnosis, treatment and surgery. Patients who need hospitalization are

admitted to nearby St. Luke's Hospital, a 289-bed Mayo facility. Mayo

Clinics also are located in Rochester, Minn., and sdale, Ariz. Visit

http://www.mayoclinic.org/news/ for all the news from Mayo Clinic.

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