| Pain is the most common reason for seeking medical attention in the U.S. Pain is classified as either acute or chronic, with the latter being of much greater concern. A common treatment strategy for chronic pain is masking, that is, the stimulation of large afferent nerve fibers to mask sensation from the small pain nerve fibers. Transcutaneous Electro-Neural Stimulation (TENS) remains popular for this task, nonetheless, there are limitations that prevent it from being used for continuous pain relief. Here, we investigate the feasibility of developing a non-contact TENS technology that may overcome these limitations while achieving similar efficacy. Simulation models of a working laboratory configuration were built using PSPICE to understand and optimize various design parameters to build a model that may work in the human body. Future work required to build such a device is also discussed. |
