Subjects who had an active magnet reported significantly less pain
than did subjects who recieved the placebo. The
confidence interval on the
difference between means shows that the effect is large and therefore
of practical as well as statistical significance.
Since this is the first study to show such a large pain reduction
using active magnets, caution should be exercised in interpreting the
results. Caution is also warranted in generalizing the results from
pain caused by polio to other types of pain. Nonetheless, these data
provide one impressive demonstration of the effectiveness of this
kind of therapy.