Acupuncture Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Acupuncture, including details on alternative medicine, uses, benefits, treatment, chinese medicine. | ||||||
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Prevalence and characteristics of pain in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease compared to the norwegian general population.Bentsen SB, Rustøen T, Miaskowski C Department of Health Education, Stord/Haugesund University College, Haugesund, Norway. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and characteristics of pain in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) compared to a sample from the Norwegian general population. This cross-sectional study evaluated 100 COPD patients with and without pain and 333 individuals from the Norwegian population with pain. After controlling for age and sex, a significantly higher percentage of patients with COPD (45%) reported pain than the general population (34%; P = .02). No differences were found in pain intensity scores, pain interference score, or number of pain locations between COPD patients and the general population. COPD patients reported moderate-to-severe pain located primarily in the chest, shoulders, neck, and thorax. For both groups, the most common pain treatment was analgesic use. Acupuncture/transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation was used more frequently by COPD patients (P < .001) while physiotherapy was used more frequently by the general population (P = .007) to treat their pain. Pain is a significant problem for COPD patients. Additional research is warranted to replicate these findings and to provide a more detailed characterization of how pain changes over time and influences COPD patients' ability to function and their quality of life. PERSPECTIVE: Compared to the general population, pain is more common in patients with COPD and ranges from moderate to severe in its intensity. Published 9 May 2011 in J Pain, 12(5): 539-45. Articles on Acupuncture published 9 May 2011: Development of an Instrument to Assess the Quality of Acupuncture: Results from a Delphi Process. J Altern Complement Med. Abstract Background: Quality acupuncture influences the outcomes of clinical research, and issues associated with effective administration of acupuncture in randomized controlled trials need to be addressed when appraising studies. Objective: The study objective was to achieve consensus on domains and items for inclusion in a rating scale to assess quality acupuncture administered in clinical research. Study design and subjects: An active group of Australian acupuncture researchers initially ... [Abstract] [Full-text] An experimental electro-acupuncture study in treatment of the rat demyelinated spinal cord injury induced by ethidium bromide. Neurosci Res. Oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) are one of the potential treating tools for multiple sclerosis (MS). Therefore, the cell number and differentiation of OPCs in a demyelinated spinal cord are crucial for improvement of reparative process. In the present study, we investigated whether "Governor Vessel (GV)" electro-acupuncture (EA) could efficiently promote increase in cell number and differentiation of OPCs into oligodendrocytes, remyelination and functional recovery in the ... [Abstract] [Full-text] Articles on Acupuncture published 3 May 2011: BACKGROUND: A key end point of early cancer clinical trials is the assessment of toxicities and their possible association with new experimental drugs. Therefore, the concurrent use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in patients with advanced malignancies seen in a dedicated phase 1 clinic was evaluated. METHODS: An investigator-designed survey was anonymously completed by patients seen in the phase 1 clinic. Pharmacologic CAM included any oral, topical, or intravenous agent, ... [Abstract] [Full-text] Articles on Acupuncture published 2 May 2011: Ear acupuncture in the treatment of migraine attacks: a randomized trial on the efficacy of appropriate versus inappropriate acupoints. Neurol Sci, 32: S173-5. Ear acupuncture can be a useful mean for controlling migraine pain. It has been shown that a technique called the Needle Contact Test (NCT) can identify the most efficacious ear acupoints for reducing current migraine pain through just a few seconds of needle contact. The majority of the points were located on the antero-internal part of the antitragus (area M) on the same side of pain. The aim of this study was to verify the therapeutic value of area M and to compare it with an area of the ear ... [Abstract] [Full-text] Acupuncture in primary headache treatment. Neurol Sci, 32: S15-8. Acupuncture has a long tradition of use for the treatment of many pain conditions, including headache. Its effectiveness has been studied mainly for primary headaches, particularly for migraine and tension-type headache (TTH). Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has two diagnostic frameworks for headaches: meridian diagnoses, based on the location of the pain and on the meridians (or channels) that pass through it; syndrome diagnoses, dependent on external or internal factors and on the ... [Abstract] [Full-text] Electrical stimulation of acupuncture points and blood pressure responses to postural changes: a pilot study. Am J Crit Care, 20(3): e67-74. Background Application of transcutaneous electrical stimulation over acupuncture points (Acu-TENS) facilitates heart rate recovery after exercise and restores hemodynamic stability after open heart surgery. The role of Acu-TENS on cardiovascular parameters in response to postural changes has not been reported. Objective To investigate (1) the effect of Acu-TENS on blood pressure responses to -10º head-down postural change and (2) whether such effects were associated with modulation by the ... [Abstract] [Full-text] Neural specificity of acupuncture stimulation from support vector machine classification analysis. Magn Reson Imaging. Acupoint specificity, as a crucial issue in acupuncture neuroimaging studies, is still a controversial topic. Previous studies have generally adopted a block-based general linear model (GLM) approach, which predicts the temporal changes in the blood oxygenation level-dependent signal conforming to the "on-off" specifications. However, this method might become impractical since the precise timing and duration of acupuncture actions cannot be specified a priori. In the current study, we ... [Abstract] [Full-text] Cost-effectiveness of acupuncture care as an adjunct to exercise-based physical therapy for osteoarthritis of the knee. Phys Ther, 91(5): 630-41. © 2004-2011 Acupuncture Research Today. All Rights Reserved. |
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