2500 B.C. Stone carvings depict Roman physicians using electric fish to treat conditions.

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By 100 B.C.

Ancient Greeks use electric eels and rays to treat headache and migraine. The Greek word for electric eel is “narka,” meaning relief from pain - the root of the term “narcotics”.

Romans devise an ingenious way to treat migraines and epilepsy. Scribonius Largus, the court physician to Emperor Claudius, is an early proponent of the treatment. For a headache, he recommends placing an electric ray on the patient’s head until the pain ceases and the part grows numb.

Rays are also used for the treatment for gout. This was done by placing rays beneath a man’s feet and allowing repeated shocks to take place to numb away the pain.

Ancient Egyptians use the torpedo, an electric marine ray, in an early form of electrotherapy to treat epilepsy.

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1600 A.D.

Queen Elizabeth’s physician explores the use of electrical charges in medicine.

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1745

The Leyden jar is invented. This is the first device able to store static electricity and is used, among other things, to treat pain.

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1746

German physicist, Christian Gottlieb Kratzenstein is probably the first modern scientist to report therapy with electricity. His electrical treatments are known throughout Europe and subsequently replicated by others.

Kratzenstein’s fame rests primarily on his work in electrotherapy where he gives accounts of curing or ameliorating paralysis by passing electric currents (administered via electrostatic generators) through the diseased part. 

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1752

Famed inventor, Benjamin Franklin is using electrical stimulation for pain relief, and to treat a person with convulsions, and various palsies. He begins to experiment with the earliest creations of batteries. The batteries sent electrical stimulation through the skin to the painful area.

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1756

Richard Lovett in The Subtil Medium Prov’d, the first English textbook on medical electricity, proves dozens of cures for many diseases using electrotherapy.

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1772

John Birch, an English surgeon, uses electrical current to control pain. He later founded the Electrical Department at St Thomas’ hospital London.

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1791

During an electrical experiment, Italian physician and anatomist Luigi Galvani watches as a scalpel touches a dissected frog on a metal mount — and the frog’s leg kicks. Further experiments lead him to theorize that living bodies contain an innate vital force that he calls “animal electricity. The phenomenon was dubbed galvanism.

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1799

Alessandro Volta, an Italian physicist and chemist, starts to raise doubts about Galvanism. He supposes that the electricity is created from only the two metals used in the experiments, not the frog itself. Galvani replies with a series of experiments demonstrating that muscle contractions are produced even in the absence of any metal. However, Volta does demonstrate that the contact of two different metals could produce an electric effect, thus arriving to the invention of the electric battery.

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1803

The body of the murderer George Forster is pulled from the gallows of Newgate Prison in London and taken to The Royal College of Surgeons. There, before an audience of doctors and curiosity-seekers, Giovanni Aldini, nephew of the late Luigi Galvani, prepares the audience to experience Galvanism. The crowd watches in terror as Foster’s jaw quivers, his facial muscles contort, and his left eye opens. This experiment served to inspire one of the most famous examples of science fiction: Frankenstein.

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In the 1830’s

Carlo Matteucci proves that an electrical current is generated by injured tissues.

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1831

British scientist Michael Faraday discovers that an electric current can produce a magnetic field and that the reverse was also true. This observation serves as the basis for neurostimulation.

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Mid-19th century

Many large hospitals have electrical departments with Leyden jars, batteries (developed by Galvani and Volta between 1791 and 1800), and after Faraday’s discovery in 1831, electromagnetic induction machines. 

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1840

Hand-held generated electricity grow popular in the 19th century; Queen Victoria and "normal folks" use it to relieve pain and other chronic pain disorders.

 When Queen Victoria becomes pregnant with her first child, she declares she does not want to feel any pain during childbirth. She is applies it during labor and becomes a trendsetter for the idea of anesthesia

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1860

In England, the start of Faradic Stimulation. Bristow develops the Bristow Coil, using Faraday’s principle of electromagnetically controlling the voltage of electricity.

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1861-1865 

During the Civil War, morphine is often utilized as a battlefield anesthetic.  Many injured soldiers develop morphine dependency as a result.

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1981

Nicola Tesla outlines medical uses of high frequency currents, developing the forerunner of Longwave, Shortwave and Microwave diathermy devices, used for heating of deep body tissues.

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1892

The Thomas Edison laboratory produces devices for local anesthesia during surgery.

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1898

Heroin, the newest opium derivative, is first produced commercially by Germany's Bayer Company (the same company that produces Aspirin). It is widely advertised as being at least 10 times as potent a painkiller as morphine with “none” of the addicting properties.

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1914 

Congress passes the Harrison Narcotics Act, which requires a written prescription for any narcotic.  

England World War I casualties are treated for exercise, pain management and healing with Faradic, Sinusoidal, Galvanic and Longwave diathermy currents.

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1923

Australian therapists responsible for treating World War I casualties with electro-medicine can obtain certification.

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1924

The Anti-Heroin Act bans the production and sale of heroin in the United States.

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1910-1944

The Flexner report from the Carnegie foundation, prepared to support Rockefeller’s quest to control the growing pharmaceutical industry, was used to close half of the medical schools in the country (virtually all the closed schools were conducting research on alternatives to pharmacology).

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1945-1965

The clinical application of electrical stimulation therapy becomes all but forgotten because of remarkable progress (revenue growth) in pharmaceutical drugs.

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1965

Leading British neuroscientists Ronald Melzack and Patrick D Wall's research leads to the “Gate Control Theory." The theory asserts that non-painful input closes the "gates" to painful input, which prevents pain sensation from traveling to the central nervous system. It was then recognized that electricity can play an important part in reducing pain for those with chronic pain conditions.

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1967

Neurosurgeon C. Norman Shealy begins implanting neurostimulators in humans for pain relief. By 1970, six patients had undergone this treatment.

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1970

Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) is acknowledged as a viable method of pain management by America’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Many American companies begin production of TENS devices. The heart pacemaker is developed.

_________________________________________________ 1995 

OxyContin, a longer acting iteration of oxycodone, is introduced and is aggressively marketed as a safe pain pill by Purdue Pharma.

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2000

John McDonald of Washington University uses Electrical Muscle Stimulation (EMS) to exercise the muscles of a quadriplegic of 8 years. The patient defies medical science by regaining limited sensation and movement in his body.

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2007

The federal government files criminal charges against Purdue Pharma for advertising OxyContin as a safer and less addictive alternative than other opioids. Purdue Pharma and a handful of executives plead guilty, and agree to pay $634.5 million in criminal and civil fines.

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2016 

The CDC publishes specific guidelines for prescribing opioids for patients with chronic pain. Recommendations include prescribing over the counter pain relievers like acetaminophen.  Individuals who had previously managed their pain through an opioid prescription were now forced to find alternative methods of treatment.

Looking for other solutions, The University of Texas at Arlington is researching and developing an implantable device. It will serve as an alternative to reducing pain through electrical stimulation that acts as a spinal block, preventing pain signals from reaching the brain.

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2017 

70,237 people die from drug overdoses in the United States, 192 per day on average.

National public health emergency declared to combat the opioid crisis.

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Today

Bioelectronics are being reincorporated into healthcare with validated successes that span indications like bone stimulation, PTS management, pain and inflammation reduction, orthopedic surgery, wound care, recovery, and physical therapy. The impact on better outcomes vs. maximum reimbursement, combined with cost-effective technology innovations that lower prescription volumes, is driving renewed interest in these time-tested therapeutic approaches.

Sources

polyrad-linda. “Thousands of Years Before Modern Electricity, Ancient Romans Used Electrotherapy to Effectively Treat Neurological Conditions.” POLYRAD, 10 Aug. 2016, polyrad.info/ancient-electrotherapy-headaches-electric-fish/.

“Delivering Electricity as Medicine.” Performance by Kate Rosenbluth, Exponential Medicine | November 2018, 22 Jan. 2018, exponential.singularityu.org/medicine/delivering-electricity-as-medicine-with-kate-rosenbluth/.

“The Body Electric.” Smithsonian Libraries, Architectural Book Publishing Co, 1 Jan. 1970, library.si.edu/exhibition/fantastic-worlds/body-electric.

“The Gate Control Theory: History of Electrotherapy.” Online Support and Helpline for Back Pain and Spine Conditions, backernation.com/technology/devices/the-gate-control-theory-history-of-electrotherapy.

S., Rebecca. “The History Of the TENS Device.” Midwestern Solutions, LLC, 7 Nov. 2015, www.utopiagear.com/blog/the-history-of-the-tens-device/.

Ohala, John. “Christian Gottlieb Kratzenstein: Pioneer in Speech Synthesis.” Academia.edu - Share Research,

The History of Pain Treatments . New York Spine and Wellness Center, www.nyspineandwellness.com.

 “Learn about the History and Evolution of Electrical Muscle Stimulation.” Stimrx, stimrx.com/history-of-ems/.

 “Timeline of the Opioid Crisis – Column Health.” Column Health, columnhealth.com/blog_posts/timeline-of-the-opioid-crisis/.

Hedegaard, Holly, et al. “National Center for Health Statistics.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 29 Nov. 2018, www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db329.htm.