Reducing Naltrexone-resistant hyperphagia using laser acupuncture to increase endogenous opiates

Abstract

A 28-year-old woman with acquired brain damage suffered subsequent profound mental disability and an intense hyperphagic syndrome complete with life-threatening pica. She was the single subject of two consecutive experiments. In the first, Naltrexone, an orally administered opiate blocker, was given to reduce hyperphagia and distress, but was associated with even greater urgency when eating meals and a manifest increase in distress. While distress reduced to premedication levels on withdrawal of treatment, urgency of eating did not reduce so quickly. In the second experiment a laser acupuncture procedure was used at 2.5 Hz and 10 Hz for 10 days each with an intervening 10-day placebo condition to increase the availability of the subject's endogenous opiates, and thus hopefully produce opposite effects to the first experiment and effect a positive treatment. The 10 Hz condition produced a significant but transient reduction in pica measured by attempts at pica on a supervised walk shortly after each treatment. The subject was also easier to manage on walks, and appeared happier. Further studies using physical exercise or acupressure to achieve similar or better results are discussed.

Laser Acupuncture: 35 Years of Successful Application in Russia (Narrative Review)

“…For example, Branco and Naeser 41 recommend to use a red laser (633 nm, 15 mW) for patients with carpal tunnel syndrome to stimulate APs nearby the skin surface, and pulsed infrared (905 nm, 9 W pulsed power) to illuminate deep-seated affected tissues and organs. There are publications in which other wavelength values were used to stimulate corporal APs: 405 nm, 36 658 nm, 42 670 nm, 43 685 nm, 36,44 830 nm, 45,46 950 nm, 47 and so on. But the parameters specified in Table 1 are most optimal.…”