For a long time, pain clinics and physiotherapists have been using large, complex pieces of equipment with cables to relieve back or joint pain. This technique, which is known as analgesic electrotherapy, has already made significant progress over the last ten years, thanks to advances in the fields of electronics and computers. However, an astonishing breakthrough has now arrived in pain treatment.People suffering from headaches will soon be able to very easily go to their own homes for treatment, rather than depend on drugs with numerous side-effects.

This technological advance is two-fold, involving miniaturisation and perfect precision. A Belgo-Swiss team of engineers and doctors (STX-Med Sprl, Parc Scientifique de Liège, Belgium) has succeeded in integrating all the required electronics into a pair of spectacles, which are worn on the head with an electrode. The device is known as the Cefaly® (www.cefaly.com) and it is simplicity itself to use: a simple press on the single button and the treatment commences automatically.

The other tremendous technological success lies in the precision of the parameters used. The head is not like the back or the joints. It has a completely different network of sensitivity. There is a very narrow margin between effective values and pain. The slightest inaccuracy in the electronic parameters can lead to the treatment becoming painful or ineffective. Ultra-precise parameters, on the other hand, allow the physiology of the nervous system to be harnessed to achieve an effective pain-busting action while at the same time producing a very pleasant tingling feeling on the head.

People suffering from migraines, stress headaches or chronic headaches now have access to an electronic innovation that can change their life completely. CEFALY® first prevents pain by reducing the frequency of headaches and can also be used to alleviate pain during an attack.