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Mechanisms of Acupuncture Analgesia

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Acupuncture for Pain Management

Abstract

Acupuncture analgesia has been a common modality for management of acute and chronic pain. Acupuncture analgesia was based on the traditional Chinese medicine theory of the balance of Yin and Yang to regulate the Qi (energy) and blood. The Qi travels through various channels in the body via meridians. Although it is difficult to translate and poorly understood in Western scientific terms, both basic and clinical research on acupuncture analgesia has begun to expose substantial progress. There are correlations between acupuncture analgesia and the neural pathways such as afferent peripheral transduction and nerve transmission, ascending and descending modulation pathways, interpretation and central processing in the brain. Ongoing animal study models have yielded insight into acupuncture analgesia starting from behavioral observation and then dissect into the molecular level. Newer imaging techniques, e.g., functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) scan have gradually revealed varying levels of neural modulation throughout central nervous system. Despite the deficiency of a vibrant consensus exploring the mechanism of its effect on analgesia, acupuncture has been shown to be beneficial in management of acute and chronic pain. Basic and clinical research has explored and compared electroacupuncture to manual acupuncture. There were greater analgesia and less intense pain during a brief period of electrical stimulation versus manual acupuncture. The clinical assessment and application of diverse frequencies and duration of electroacupuncture versus manual acupuncture may provide effective and systematic benefit. Further ongoing research is still in great demand in order to better elucidate the mechanism of acupuncture analgesia.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anesthesiology, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, USA

    Annie D. Lee MD

  2. Pain Management Center, Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and Orthopedic Hospital, 1245 16th Street, Suite 225, Santa Monica, California, 90404, USA

    Eric Shen-Zen Hsu MD

Authors
  1. Annie D. Lee MD
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  2. Eric Shen-Zen Hsu MD
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Correspondence to Eric Shen-Zen Hsu MD .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Medical Acupuncture Service, Department of Anaesthesia (Pediatrics) Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Yuan-Chi Lin

  2. Department of Anesthesiology, Pain Management Fellowship, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA;, Los Angeles, California, USA

    Eric Shen-Zen Hsu

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Lee, A., Hsu, EZ. (2014). Mechanisms of Acupuncture Analgesia. In: Lin, YC., Hsu, EZ. (eds) Acupuncture for Pain Management. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5275-1_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5275-1_4

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