title: Acupuncture for refractory epilepsy: role of thalamus.
abstract: Neurostimulation procedures like vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) and deep brain stimulation have been used to treat refractory epilepsy and other neurological disorders. While holding promise, they are invasive interventions with serious complications and adverse effects. Moreover, their efficacies are modest with less seizure free. Acupuncture is a simple, safe, and effective traditional healing modality for a wide range of diseases including pain and epilepsy. Thalamus takes critical role in sensory transmission and is highly involved in epilepsy genesis particularly the absence epilepsy. Considering thalamus serves as a convergent structure for both acupuncture and VNS and the thalamic neuronal activities can be modulated by acupuncture, we propose that acupuncture could be a promising therapy or at least a screening tool to select suitable candidates for those invasive modalities in the management of refractory epilepsy.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100700, China.
authors.forename: Shuping
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: China General Meitan Hospital, Beijing 100028, China.
authors.forename: Shubin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100700, China.
authors.forename: Peijing
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rong
authors.affiliation: Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100700, China.
authors.forename: Junling
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: School of Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Hongqi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100700, China.
authors.forename: Jianliang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang