[1] In medicine, the term electrotherapy can apply to a variety of treatments, including the use of electrical devices such as deep brain stimulators for neurological disease.

The natural neurostimulation hypothesis explains the therapeutic effect by the fact that energy stimuli induce mitochondrial stress and microvascular vasodilation.

[22] Since healthy neurostimulation should emulate the physical characteristics of a mother's care for her fetus during pregnancy scaled to the treatment parameters of the specific patient, but many techniques of electrotherapy do not consider this, the hypothesis claims that their effectiveness and some practices for their use still anecdotal.

[16] A 2016 review found that, "in evidence of no effectiveness," clinicians should not offer electrotherapy for the treatment of neck pain or associated disorders.

[30] A 2012 review found that "Small, single studies showed that some electrotherapy modalities may be beneficial" in rehabilitating ankle bone fractures .

[33] A 2016 Cochrane review found that supporting evidence for electrotherapy as a treatment for complex regional pain syndrome is "absent or unclear.

[21] Earlier reviews found that, because of low-quality evidence, it was unclear whether electrotherapy increases healing rates of pressure ulcers.

[39] Since the 1950s, over 150 published articles have found a positive outcome in using cranial electrostimulation (CES) to treat depression, anxiety, and insomnia.

[40] [needs update] Electrotherapy is contraindicated for people with:[41] The first recorded treatment of a patient by electricity was by Johann Gottlob Krüger in 1743.