Acupuncture ameliorated chronic non-responding anxiety symptoms

Acupuncture treatment greatly improves chronic non-responding anxiety symptoms and its therapeutic effect is sustainable up to 10 weeks after treatment, according to a randomized controlled trial published in the Journal of Acupunct Medicine.

Chronic non-responding anxiety referred to the conditions when the symptoms of anxiety patients lasted more than one year and responded poorly to at least two forms of medications and other therapies such as cognitive behavioural therapy and bibliotherapy. These patients made heavy use of health service with little beneficial outcome. It is urgent to find alternative treatment to reduce the suffering of those patients.

Dr. Errington-Evans in Wales, Britain carried out a randomized controlled clinical study to assess the effect of acupuncture on patients with chronic non-responding anxiety symptoms. Forty patients matched with criteria were randomized into two groups. Group one patients (n=25) were give acupuncture treatment at acupoints PC6, HT7 and LR3 for 30 min once a weeks for 10 weeks. Patients in group 2 were not given acupuncture as control. The State and Trait Anxiety Inventory were used to monitor the changes in symptom intensity before and after acupuncture treatment.

At the end of acupuncture State Anxiety score in acupuncture group decreased from 57.7 to 38.8, while the scores in control group only shifted from 61.5 to 60.6. The similar changes was found in Trait Anxiety scores. This showed acupuncture significantly improved anxiety symptoms of those patients. Patients treated with acupuncture felt that they were more prepared to cope with day-to-day activities they had wanted to enjoy prior to the sessions. They identified that acupuncture is an important factor in their new attitude. The follow-up found that improvement of symptoms were maintained 10 weeks after acupuncture. No side effect was reported.

The study suggests that acupuncture is a very effective alternative therapy for patients with chronic non-responding anxiety symptoms.

Reference:

Errington-Evans N, Randomised controlled trial on the use of acupuncture in adults with chronic, non-responding anxiety symptoms. Acupunct Med doi:10.1136/ acupmed-2014-010524.   http://aim.bmj.com/content/early/2015/01/16/acupmed-2014-010524.abstract

Potential mechanisms of acupuncture treatment for epilepsy

Although acupuncture including auricular acupuncture is very effective in treating epilepsy the mechanism underlying its effectiveness is not clear. Recently many biomedical studies of acupuncture on epileptic models may help to shed light on those issues.

Epilepsy has been recognized as a disorder of brain excitability characterized by recurrent unprovoked seizures that arise from abnormal, excessive and synchronous activities of clusters of nerve cells in the brain. Epileptic hyperexcitability is believed involved in many factors, among them the important determinant is the intrinsic electrogenic property of neurons that depend on the function of ion channels, such as Na+, K+ and Ca+ channels in cell membrane. In particular, Na+ channels are responsible for the initiation and propagation of action potential, and are critical determinants of intrinsic neuronal excitability. Many studies reported that acupuncture stimulation at specific acupoints increased the release of opioid peptides and their receptors including delta-opioid receptors, which were reported to have inhibited Na+ channel activity, leading to acupuncture’s antiepileptic effect.

A brain region, the thalamus is also believed to play an important role in the epilepticgenesis. Because the close connection between brain cortex and thalamus and the abnormal hypersynchronized oscillation in the thalamocortical network being linked to some forms of epilepsy. It has been reported that acupuncture stimulation at acupoint GV14 inhibited epileptiform activities in the ventral lateral thalamic neurons.

These studies suggest that acupuncture signals generated from activation of receptors surrounding acupoint conveyed to the spinal cord or medullar, then projected to the thalamus, activated opioid system leading to the inhibition of epileptic hyperexcitability.

References:

Chen S et al., Acupuncture for Refractory Epilepsy: Role of Thalamus. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Volume 2014 (2014), Article ID 950631, 8 pages.   http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2014/950631  

Chao D et al., From Acupuncture to Interaction between 𝛿-Opioid Receptors and Na+ Channels: A Potential Pathway to Inhibit Epileptic Hyperexcitability. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Volume 2013, Article ID 216016, 17 pages. 
http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2013/216016/ 

Acupuncture improved non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease

Acupuncture treatment alleviated many non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s including pain, depression, anxiety, hot flashes and paroxysmal sweating in a patients with Parkinson’s. This is a case report published in the journal of Case Reports of Neurological Medicine.

Non-motor symptoms occur in virtually all patients with Parkinson’s. Non-motor symptoms range from autonomic dysfunction, psychiatric disorders, sensory symptoms, gastrointestinal syndromes and many others. Acupuncture is very effective in relieving many non-motor symptoms without side-effect.

Recently Dr. Iseki and colleagues in Japan used acupuncture to treat multiple non-motor symptoms of a patient with PD. An 81-year-old woman with a 5-year history of right-dominant lower leg pain was admitted into the hospital. Although she was prescribed various kinds of pain killers her pain was not satisfactorily relieved. She was diagnosed with Parkinson’s 3 year ago due to her mask-like face and bradykinesia and around that time suffered from severe hot flashes and paroxysmal sweating which was not associated with the levodopa treatment. The patient was given acupuncture treatment 5 times per week for 2 weeks. Assessments including Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) for pain, Hamilton Depression Scale (HAM-D) for depression and the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) score were performed before and after acupuncture treatment.

It was found that immediately after every acupuncture session patient felt that her legs had become light. Two weeks after acupuncture her lower leg pain became milder. VAS scores were markedly reduced. The daily attack of hot flashes and paroxysmal sweating were decreased to about three time a week. Depression and anxiety were obviously lessened and HAM-D scores reduced from 18 to 9. The UPDRS total score reduced from 59 to 46. Her steps became larger and her bradykinesia was improved.

This is another report showing that acupuncture is beneficial to PD patients suffering from both non-motor and motor symptoms.

Reference

Iseki C et al.,  Acupuncture Alleviated the Nonmotor Symptoms of Parkinson's Disease including Pain, Depression, and Autonomic Symptoms. Case Rep Neurol Med. 2014;2014:953109. doi: 10.1155/2014/953109. http://www.hindawi.com/journals/crinm/2014/953109/ 

Moxibustion improved bladder function in multiple system atrophy

Moxibustion performed at specific acupoints significantly decreased nocturnal urine output of a patient with multiple system atrophy (MSA). A case report was published in the journal of Internal Medicine.

Dr. Ryuji Sakakibara and colleagues in the Chiba University of Japan reported a case study of therapeutic effect of moxibustion on autonomic symptoms of MSA. A 65-year-old man diagnosed as MSA-parkinsonian form. He had urinary urgency but failed to evacuate his bladder properly. Although his daytime urine output was 300ml, his nighttime urine output was 2000ml. Biochemical test found that plasma levels of circadian arginine vasopressin rhythm (C-AVP-R) was significantly decreased in nighttime. Moxibustion was performed at specific acupoints such as Ren3, ST30, SP6 and KI5 once a day, 3 times a week for 6 months. Two months following moxibustion, nighttime urine output ratio gradually decreased to 87%, and it reached 75% by the end of 6-month treatment. Nighttime plasma levels of C-AVP-R were normalized by the end of treatment.

This case report suggests that moxibustion is able to improve bladder function by normalizing disturbed C-AVP-R levels in patient with MSA.

Reference:

Sakakibara R et al., Moxibustion, an alternative therapy, ameliorated disturbed circadian rhythm of plasma arginine vasopressin and urine output in multiple system atrophy. Intern Med. 2007;46(13):1015-8.   http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17603243