Evoked potential assessment of acupunctural analgesia: Attempted reversal with naloxone

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The effects of electrical acupunctural stimulation (2 Hz) on pain judgments and evoked potentials were evaluated using dental dolorimetry. Human subjects received acupuncture at points located in the same neurologic segment as the test tooth or at points on the hands located on acupuncture meridians. In both instances acupuncture resulted in a reduction in pain intensity and smaller evoked potential amplitudes, but naloxone did not reverse the analgesia or affect the evoked potentials. Manual stimulation failed to produce an analgesia reversible by naloxone. Acupunctural stimulation, apparently, significantly reduces pain sensibility in volunteers undergoing dolorimetric testing, but whether endorphin release is a mechanism by which acupuncture exerts analgesia is not clear.