Natural analgesic systems
Nan Stalker in Pain Control, 2018
Acupuncture was developed many centuries ago in China as a method of pain control, and is still used throughout the world today. Acupuncture involves placing fine needles in certain defined areas of the skin in an attempt to attain analgesia in specific parts of the body. Clinical evidence indicates that acupuncture is effective in about 50 per cent of patients who are about to undergo minor surgery or other procedures with transient pain. There is little research available on the mode of action of the acupuncture procedure but in both humans and animals the use of acupuncture needles increases the release of endorphins into the cerebrospinal fluid. It has also been discovered that in humans the analgesic effect of acupuncture is blocked by an injection of naloxone, a drug known to block the effect of endorphins at the opioid receptors.
Acupuncture
Harald Breivik, William I Campbell, Michael K Nicholas in Clinical Pain Management, 2008
Whilst acupuncture is likely to do more than simply offer pain relief, the standard pattern of effect from treatment is most easily appreciated in terms of analgesia. There may be little or no effect after the first session, as the practitioner will usually start with gentle treatment. This is to avoid aggravating the complaint in those most sensitive to needling. The initial response is seen within the first 72 hours after treatment, and its onset is often not perceived until the day after needling. Repeat treatments are performed either bi-weekly or weekly, and the interval can be lengthened with the response. Typically there is a progressive increase in the quality and duration of the effect following repeated sessions, and in chronic pain states, symptom control can be maintained for some patients with relatively infrequent treatments, perhaps every four to six weeks, or sometimes longer.
THE PROGRESS OF CHINESE MEDICINE IN MAINLAND CHINA
Kevin Chan, Henry Lee in The Way Forward for Chinese Medicine, 2001
Acupuncture plays an important role in today's multidisciplinary approach to the treatment of pain. To date, there are flaws in the con-ventional, scientific, clinical research methods applied to the evalua-tion of acupuncture practice for treatment of pain. Some guidelines and suggestions for future clinical trials are presented. Furthermore, in search of more scientific data, a review of several basic and clinical research articles was undertaken to evaluate a possible scientific basis for the mechanism of acupuncture analgesia. For example, several lines of evidence support the endorphin-mediated mechanism of acupuncture analgesia. High or low frequency stimulation induced by electrical acupuncture has been shown to release different types of endorphins. But, problems and limitations of adequately designed clinical trials were also addressed.
Feasibility of auricular acupressure as an adjunct treatment for neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS)
Published in Substance Abuse, 2021
Heather J. Jackson, Cristina Lopez, Sarah Miller, Barbara Englehardt
Acupuncture is a treatment that employs small needles placed in established acupoints or meridians along the body to produce a therapeutic outcome and symptom relief .14 The National Acupuncture Detoxification Association (NADA) protocol includes an auricular acupuncture technique for the treatment of addiction and associated symptoms of dependence and has demonstrated efficacy in the adult population.15–17 This acupuncture therapy targets physiological symptoms of withdrawal that are caused by the displacement of substances on receptors sites widely distributed in the brain and spinal cord.18 Strategic acupoints (shen men, sympathetic, kidney, liver, and lung) have been identified in the NADA protocol to ease symptoms of withdrawal and dependence by addressing disruptions in the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.19
Transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation for people with chronic musculoskeletal pain: an exploratory review
Published in Physical Therapy Reviews, 2019
Some people with chronic pain may find sensory stimulation analgesia beneficial. A method that is safe for self-application at home, allowing people to more effectively self-manage their pain as required could be useful. This study aimed to explore whether there was sufficient clinical evidence to support the use of TEAS and whether appropriate dose recommendations could be identified. We found that TEAS appears to be effective but the evidence is from mostly low quality small studies. The available evidence includes different pain conditions and varied dose parameters. The choice of acupuncture points had no clear impact, as beneficial treatment was observed whether points local to the pain or combining local and distal points were used. There was no clear evidence that choice of high or low frequency or stimulation intensity had an impact on treatment efficacy. The stimulation duration used was between 20 and 40 minutes in most studies, consistent with those recommended for acupuncture. The studies that did not report significant benefits used longer stimulation duration periods or included only one or two treatment sessions. TEAS may be a suitable self-management option for people with chronic pain but more high quality placebo controlled trials are needed. Future research should investigate the importance of the stimulation duration, whether TEAS is effective for specific types of pain and how well it could work in a self-management scenario. These findings may have implications for research investigating TENS for people with chronic pain, with or without the use of acupuncture points.
Acupuncture use for pain after traumatic brain injury: a NIDILRR Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems cohort study
Published in Brain Injury, 2023
Mark D. Sodders, Aaron M. Martin, Jennifer Coker, Flora M. Hammond, Jeanne M. Hoffman
Pain outcomes were similar between acupuncture and non-acupuncture users, which is not surprising, given the limitations of the data. Chronic pain and inflammatory conditions require multiple acupuncture treatments more than one day weekly over many weeks for a clinically meaningful effect – at least 12 to 24 treatments over six to twelve weeks (52). This frequency and course of treatment exceed the average course of acupuncture for the United States consumer, with or without insurance coverage (25,53). The Pain Questionnaire from the primary study did not collect information on the temporality of acupuncture treatments for pain after TBI. While some participants were only one-year post-injury, a majority were at least five years after injury, and over half of the acupuncture users were ten years or more post-injury.
Related Knowledge Centers
- Adverse Effect
- Alternative Medicine
- Asepsis
- Eight Principles
- Histology
- Physiology
- Traditional Chinese Medicine
- Pneumothorax
- Quackery
- Meridian