Pain
Conditions
Keywords
Pain, Acupuncture, DNIC, Electroacupuncture
Brief summary
The investigators hypothesize that acupuncture modifies the DNIC efficiency and that DNIC can serve as a predictor to identify 'good responders' to acupuncture early in therapy.
Interventions
OTHERAcupuncture
Electroacupuncture
Sponsors
Bastyr University
University of Washington
Study design
Allocation
NA
Intervention model
SINGLE_GROUP
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 60 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* Healthy women with a progesterone-coated intrauterine device (Mirena), and * Men greater than or equal to 18 years old.
Exclusion criteria
* Acupuncture treatment in the previous six weeks, to discount any persisting effect of acupuncture. * Treatment of a pain condition with pain medication. * Regular use of benzodiazepines. * Skin diseases, such as scleroderma, psoriasis or eczema. * An adverse event due to acupuncture therapy. * Pregnant women. * Women without a progesterone-coated intrauterine device (Mirena). * Anyone older than 60 years of age, fatigued, with a pacemaker ICD, artificial joint, prolonged bleeding time/hemophilia, open wounds, or a known susceptibility to profound analgesia after acupuncture treatment.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Diffuse Noxious Inhibitory Control Efficiency | Week 0, 2, 4, 6, and 12 of acupuncture therapy | The efficiency of diffuse noxious inhibitory control (DNIC) is a measure of one's ability to inhibit pain perception. DNIC efficiency is assessed by a psychophysical test that involves a heat thermode as the test stimulus and a warm water bath as the conditioning stimulus. The results of this test will be used as the primary outcome measure. |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed