TAMMEF therapy in the treatment of shoulder periarthritis: efficacy and safety

The utility and the safety of the extremely low frequencies (ELF) electromagnetic fields in the treatment of numerous diseases have been demonstrated. Moreover, the effects of these fields seem to depend on their respective codes (frequency, intensity, waveform). We want to value the effects and the safety of the therapeutic application of a musically modulated electromagnetic field (TAMMEF) system, which field is piloted by a musical signal and its parameters (frequency, intensity, waveform) are modified in time, randomly varying within the respective ranges, so that all possible codes can occur during a single application. Sixty subjects, affected by shoulder periarthritis were enrolled in the study and randomly divided into three groups of 20 patients each: the first exposed to TAMMEF, the second exposed to ELF, the third exposed to a simulated field. All subjects underwent a cycle of 15 daily sessions of 30 min each and a clinical examination upon enrolment, after 7 days of therapy, at the end of the cycle and at a follow-up 30 days later. All the patients of TAMMEF group and ELF group completed the therapy without the appearance of side effects: they presented a significant improvement of the subjective pain and the functional limitation, which remained stable at the follow-up examination. In those exposed to a simulated field group, there was no improvement of the pain symptoms or articular functionality. This study suggests that the TAMMEF system is efficacious and safe in the control of pain symptoms and in the reduction of functional limitation in patients with shoulder periarthritis. Moreover, the effects of the TAMMEF system cover those produced by the ELF field.