Acupuncture analgesia for temporal summation of experimental pain: A randomised controlled study

Abstract

EA induces bilateral, segmentally distributed and prolong analgesia on both SPT and TST, indicating a non-centrally specific effect. This effect needs to be verified with heat or mechanical model and in pain patients.

Expectancy in Real and Sham Electroacupuncture: Does Believing Make It So?

“…This raises the possibility that innate expectancy (which individuals bring with them to treatment) may differ from manipulated expectancy. In a study using healthy volunteers in an experimental setting with quantitative sensory testing, Zheng et al (22) found that EA produced a significant decrease in the single pain threshold and temporal summation threshold as compared with SA both immediately and 24 hours posttreatment. In a study using positron emission tomography with (11) C-carfentanil among patients with fibromyalgia, Harris et al (23) found that real acupuncture increased mu-opioid receptor binding potentials in specific brain regions (cingulate cortex, caudate nuclei, and the amygdala) that are involved in pain processing, while SA may have caused a small decrease.…”

“…Randomized trials should measure expectancy using a validated instrument at the beginning and longitudinally to understand the role of expectancy on outcomes (12). Research using translational tools such as quantitative sensory testing (22), functional brain imaging (21,23), and other correlative biomarkers (eg, inflammation, telomere length/telomerase activity) will increase our understanding of the mechanisms underlying both acupuncture effect as well as the symptom of interest (eg, pain). Further, research focused on tailoring treatment based on expectancy may help to inform the personalized practice of acupuncture and improve the overall experience of cancer survivorship for patients.…”

Manual and Electrical Needle Stimulation in Acupuncture Research: Pitfalls and Challenges of Heterogeneity

“…Further, in healthy humans significantly greater analgesia for EA was observed compared with MA, with the analgesic effect of EA occurring immediately following treatment and peaking hours after needle removal. 48 This last finding is of significance because no other studies reported outcomes hours after needle removal, which raises the possibility that the window of observation needed for determining analgesic effects of EA may need to extend long after treatment. Finally, a recent study looking at mechanical pressure pain found EA superior to MA at increasing pain thresholds in healthy humans.…”

“…36,[39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51] Significant heterogeneity existed across studies, with variability in needle insertion location, electrical stimulation frequency, and stimulation duration. In searching for studies that compared the two stimulation modalities while controlling for confounding factors such as needle location, insertion depth of needle, and treatment duration, it was discovered that the duration of needle stimulation during EA was nearly always much longer than in MA (e.g., 15-30 minutes for EA and a few seconds for MA).…”

Effects of single acupuncture point stimulation on mechanical experimental pain

“…Another study has found that acu puncture application of 25 minutes, has showed an acute analgesic effect that has lasted for at least 24 hours [20], however the agreement of scientific community stands that for prolonged effects, multiple, repeated sessions are needed.…”