Acupuncture and placebo: Effects on delaying the terminating response to a painful stimulus.
An experiment was performed to determine whether needles inserted into appropriate acupuncture points could delay onset of a pain-terminating response more than needles inserted as placebos into inappropriate points could. A heat source contained in a modified Hardy-Wolff-Goodell dolorimeter was used as a stimulus to produce pain on the posterolateral aspects of the left forearms of volunteer subjects. Subjects pressed a switch as soon as pain was experienced, and the latency between stimulus onset and response was measured to the nearest hundredth of a second. Response latencies were recorded before and after needling, which included electrical stimulation. Needles placed in specific acupuncture points called Ho-Ku and Wai-Kaun delayed onset of the pain-terminating response slightly more than needles inserted as placebos. Even with needles in appropriate acupuncture points, analgesia was slight and subjects still experienced pain.
D015670:Acupuncture Therapy; D000698:Analgesia; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D005542:Forearm; D006358:Hot Temperature; D006801:Humans; D010146:Pain; D010919:Placebos; D011930:Reaction Time
D010919:Placebos