A clinic has been banned from claiming that an electromagnetic treatment can produce “immediate and lasting” pain relief for chronic and acute conditions.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the claimed pain relief effects of the Super Inductive System (SIS) could not be substantiated and were therefore misleading.
It told the Nantwich Clinic, which had advertised its use of the technology in a local magazine, not to promote pain relief effects of using the system.
The ruling could impact other clinics using the technology and making similar claims as Nantwich Clinic had repeated those from the SIS website and used the SIS-hosted research to defend its advert.
SIS also boasts high profile testimonials from Portuguese football clubs FC Porto and Benfica and other international professionals.
The ASA investigated after receiving a complaint challenging whether the efficacy claims for the medical conditions listed in the ad were misleading and could be substantiated.
The clinic, which is a trading name of as Cheshire Health & Medical Professionals LLP, had repeated pain relief claims made on the SIS website in an advert which said: “Say goodbye to pain with the Super Inductive System.”
After listing several conditions including backache, slipped disc and nerve damage, the advert concluded: “Immediate and lasting pain relief for all stages of disorder, chronic or acute.”
Research rejected
Nantwich Clinic defended the advertised claims using five small scale non-peer-reviewed papers also available on the SIS website and one study which had been published.
In total only 125 patients were covered in the six research papers sent to the ASA, with the largest sample of patients in any of the studies being just 57, while only two of the studies included a control group.
Having assessed the papers, the ASA noted that three did not address pain relief but instead measured other conditions such as involuntary muscle tightening, and muscle strength and mobility.
Three did measure pain relief and appeared to show some improvement but the ASA raised significant concerns with the quality of the studies.
In one study of six patients with wrist fractures it highlighted the research was uncontrolled and with a very small sample size.
“We did not consider it was sufficient to support the claims in the ad that the therapy could aid ‘fracture healing’ or relieve any type of pain,” the ASA said.
A single patient case study reported some improvement in elbow joint and shoulder girdle pain, but again the ASA said it “considered that an uncontrolled case study of a single patient was insufficient to support claims that the therapy could relieve elbow or shoulder joint pain”.
The fifth study was unpublished and included 57 randomly selected patients with chronic and acute musculoskeletal pain, with patients having six rounds of therapy on average.
The outcomes were evaluated based on the subjective statements of the patients before and after each therapy, with the results showing the overall decrease of pain was 37.5%.
However, the ASA rejected these findings also noting the study was not blinded or placebo controlled, and it “therefore did not consider it was sufficient to substantiate that the therapy could provide relief from acute and chronic pain”.
Not substantiated, misleading claims
As a result of assessing the research provided, the ASA said the claims made as consumers were likely to understand them in the advert, “had not been substantiated and were therefore misleading”.
“We told Cheshire Health & Medical Professionals LLP t/a Nantwich Clinic to ensure that they did not state or imply that the Super Inductive System could provide immediate and lasting relief from pain in general, or from pain resulting from any of the sources listed in the ad, unless they held adequate evidence to substantiate their claims,” the ASA added.
Health & Protection contacted Nantwich Clinic for its response to the ASA’s findings.
After initially talking to Health & Protection, the clinic spokesperson then said they did not want to comment.
The claims regarding SIS remain on the Nantwich Clinic website and the ASA has confirmed businesses have a grace period to update their materials.
The ASA also confirmed that its rulings apply to any other businesses making similar claims as the original case, but it would need to review the material from other businesses to confirm if they had broken the rules.
SIS has also been contacted through the only contact point on its website but no response has been received.