Research Archive

A systematic review carried out in Denmark and published in the BMJ has concluded that pain relief with acupuncture is minimal and mainly due to placebo effect. However, an accompanying editorial mitigates this seemingly negative result, explaining that interpreting the effects of sham acupuncture may be essential in understanding acupuncture's true analgesic effect. The systematic review assessed ...

American clinicians have carried out a nonrandomised pilot study to determine the feasibility of acupuncture for acute postoperative pain control in hospitalised children. 20 patients (aged 7 months to 18 years) who had undergone a variety of surgical interventions received two 10 to 15-minute sessions of acupuncture 24-48 hours apart. The treatment was found to be highly acceptable (of 27 patient ...

A preliminary trial by an American team has found acupuncture to be a promising way of treating arthralgia in women receiving aromatase inhibitors (AIs) for breast cancer. Twelve patients were provided with electro-acupuncture (EA) twice a week for two weeks, followed by six weekly treatments. Acupuncture was based on the TCM diagnosis of bi syndrome, with electrostimulation of needles around the ...

A team from the USA has found that the duration of electro-acupuncture treatment can affect its analgesic effect. Healthy volunteers were randomised to receive 0, 20, 30 or 40 minutes of electro-acupuncture stimulation (alternating 2/100 Hz at 5mA). Using a cold pain threshold test, the investigators found that 30 min of stimulation resulted in the most significant hypoalgesic effect, which was su ...