Abstract
Fatigue is a debilitating condition, often consequent on infections that persist. There are few treatment options, and patients frequently seek complementary medical treatment. One such treatment, a low-energy electromagnetic radiation emitted by RIFETECH®-Plasma, was used in this observational study. The device emits low frequency, low energy radiation modulated onto cold plasma. The frequency can be adapted according to therapeutic specifications.
One hundred and thirteen patients with chronic fatigue were enrolled by 11 practitioners and treated for four weeks, with, on average, two sessions per week which lasted for two hours (median). Outcome was measured with the German version of the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) and the World Health Organization 5 Item Quality of Life Questionnaire (WHO-Quol-5) before and after treatment. Since this was a pilot-observational study, the protocol stipulated mainly a descriptive analysis reporting standardized mean differnces, with orienting significance testing by robust non-parametric methods.
The patients were initially severely fatigued (duration of fatigue 20.9 months on average; FFS sum: 50.05 ± 11.4 standard deviation (SD); mean: 5.57 ± 1,27 SD [healthy controls: 3.0; multiple sclerosis patients: 4.66]) and improved after treatment significantly. Improvement was 13.8 points (SD ±13.0) on the FSS and 8.57 (SD ± 8.4) on the WHO-Quol-5 scale (standardized mean difference ≈ 1.0).
We conclude that treatment with individually adapted low-energy, low-frequency EM radiation using RIFETECH-Plasma® is a promising treatment option which should be studied further in controlled trials.