Currency

Research Archive

Welcome to our Chinese medicine and acupuncture research news pages. We add to the content of these pages continuously as more research news comes in. Browse through the complete archive below or use the category links on the right.

Please note that the most twenty recent research archive items are free to view but access to the thousands of items in the archive require a journal subscription.

Acupuncture and the brain

Categories: Acupuncture research

In an American study, fifteen healthy subjects were evaluated with magnetoencephalography (MEG) to map the location and timing of brain activity during low-frequency electroacupuncture (EA) and non-penetrating sham acupuncture (SA) using a metal filament at Neiguan P-6. Both EA and SA evoked brain responses in the contralateral primary somatosensory (SI) cortex. However, initial responses for EA p ...

Your brain on acupuncture

Categories: Acupuncture research

A US study used fMRI to analyse the effects on the brain of manual acupuncture stimulation at Erjian L.I.-2, a point commonly used to treat xerostomia (dry mouth due to lack of saliva). Twenty healthy volunteers received true and sham acupuncture in random order while undergoing fMRI imaging. Saliva production was also measured. They found that true acupuncture was associated with bilateral activa ...

Acupuncture changes resting brain activity

Categories: Acupuncture research

Studies using fMRI to look at brain activity before and after acupuncture suggest that it is capable of affecting the resting state of the brain in a sustained manner. Stimulation of Neiguan P-6 was carried out for 150 seconds using either verum manual acupuncture or sham (non-penetrative tapping of the skin using a metal filament passed through a needle guide tube). A resting scan was completed b ...

Response to acupuncture can be experimentally manipulated

Categories: Acupuncture research

Expectancy or aversion to acupuncture can complicate evaluation of the efficacy of acupuncture in clinical trials. Korean researchers have investigated whether experimentally manipulating the perception of acupuncture could elicit different responses to identical acupuncture stimulation. Seventeen participants were assessed with the acupuncture belief scale (ABS) and by measuring tactile and pain ...

Acupuncture affects brain's pain network

Categories: Acupuncture research

Chinese researchers have demonstrated a brain network associated with the amygdala at rest (part of the default mode network) that encompasses brain structures implicated in pain sensation and modulation. Using fMRI, they have also found that this pain-related network can be modulated by both verum acupuncture and sham acupuncture, with verum acupuncture inducing a higher level of connectivity in ...

Acupuncture analgesia mechanisms

Categories: Acupuncture research

A review from Taiwan gives an overview of the mechanisms by which acupuncture's analgesic effects are mediated. The authors outline the various mechanisms that appear to be involved in acupuncture analgesia (AA), from early studies investigating the relationship between acupuncture and endogenous opiates, to the role of the serotoninergic descending inhibitory pathway. They go on to discuss result ...

Acupuncture and addiction mechanisms

Categories: Substance abuse, Acupuncture research

Korean researchers have reviewed the data regarding possible mechanisms of action of acupuncture in the treatment of drug addiction. They suggest that acupuncture's role in suppressing the reinforcing effects of abused drugs takes place by modulating dopamine neurons in the mesolimbic area of the brain. They further examine the potential roles of neurotransmitter systems such as serotonin, opioid ...

Acupuncture and the brain

Categories: Acupuncture research

A Korean study exploring brain activation using (fMRI) has compared verum acupuncture to placebo needles. Two fMRI scans were taken, one for verum acupuncture and one for non-penetrating placebo needling at Xingjian LIV-2, on the left foot, in 10 healthy volunteers. The researchers examined the difference between the two scans by subtracting the blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal generated ...

Placebo needling may not be inert

Categories: Acupuncture research

A double blind randomised controlled study comparing the effects of real and placebo acupuncture on pregnancy rates after assisted reproduction has found placebo acupuncture to be associated with a significantly higher pregnancy rate. In the trial, carried out in Hong Kong, 370 patients were allocated to 25 minutes of either real or placebo acupuncture before and after embryo transfer (ET). The re ...