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(From wire service reports)
An important step has apparently been taken in scientific verification of the efficacy of acupuncture in pain relief.
A team led by Dr. Huey-Jen Lee, chief of neuroradiology at the University of Medicine and Dentistry (Newark NJ) used functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) to measure the brain's response to pain during and after two types of acupuncture. One type used traditional acupuncture, with needles twisted by hand; the other used low level electrical current through the needles. In the small test (twelve subjects), pain as measured by relevant brain activity was relieved in 4/7 of the subjects using manual manipulation, and in all five (5/5) of the subjects using electrical stimulation.
Readers will recall that for many years the practice of TENS (transdermal electrical neural stimulation) has been used in the U.S. to relieve many types of chronic pain, but without needles and usually placing the electrodes where the pain is felt. In traditional Chinese acupuncture, the needles are placed according to charts of the body where the location of the needle may have no apparent relation to the location of the pain. In the New Jersey test, the point used was the "Hegu" acupoint between the thumb and forefinger; the target pain area was in the lip or mouth region.
Because of the lack of an underlying theory, and the purely empirical nature of the location of the needles, acupuncture received little credence in the West until relatively recently, when interest has been growing. Now both medical doctors and others, including chiropractors, have been offering acupuncture in growing numbers.
How long the pain relief effect of acupuncture may last is unclear. Dr. Lee said that a previous study showed relief of migraine pain lasted up to six months in 60% of patients.