Parental Auricular Acupuncture
The purpose of this study was to determine whether parental
auricular acupuncture reduces parent's
Anxiety before an operation and thus
allows children to benefit from their presence while anesthesia is administered.
Mothers of children who were scheduled to undergo surgery were
randomly assigned to an acupuncture intervention group, with auricular press
needles at relaxation, tranquilizer, and master cerebral points, or a sham
acupuncture control group where needles were pressed at the shoulder, wrist, and
extraneous auricular point. The intervention was performed at least 30 minutes
before the child received anesthesia. All mothers were present during the
induction of anesthesia.
After induction, analysis found that maternal
Anxiety in the
acupuncture group was significantly lower (42.9 +/- 10 vs., 49.5 +- 11; P=.014).
The model also showed that children whose mothers received the acupuncture
intervention were significantly less anxious on entrance to the operating room
and during introduction of the anesthesia mask (38.6 +/- 25 vs. 55.6 +/- 31; P =
.016). There were no significant differences in maternal blood pressure and
heart rate between the two groups.
Wang SM, Maranets I, Weinberg ME, Caldwell-Andrews AA, Kain
ZN, Department of Anesthesiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven,
Acupuncture Needless in Blood
Acupuncture failed to reduce
blood pressure, a researcher from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical
Center reported at the American Society of Hypertension's 19th Annual Scientific
Meeting last month.
The researchers, led by Dr. Norman M. Kaplan, treated 11
people with normal to stage 1 hypertension with 30 minutes of repeated
electrical acupuncture, two or three times a week for four weeks at traditional
Chinese "hypertension" sites. Blood pressure was measured in the office with
ambulatory monitors to record pressure during the day and night. Routine blood
pressure was measured four times before and after each acupuncture treatment.
Researchers noted that sympathetic nerve traffic did not
change immediately but was reduced by the end of the four-week protocol.
Sympathetic nerve traffic is the microelectric measurement of traffic down the
nerve. Systolic blood pressure fell an average of 4 mm Hg after nine of the ten
treatments. Diastolic blood pressure remained the same. Pre-acupuncture blood
pressure levels did not change over the four weeks and ambulatory pressure was
not reduced. Although there was a small fall in systolic blood pressure after
each treatment, there was no evidence of persistent, long-term reduction.
This study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of standardized acupuncture
treatment in managing disabling breathlessness. The study compared a
standardized acupuncture technique vs. a placebo/control (mock transcutaneous
electrical nerve stimulation) for disabling, nonmalignant breathlessness. The
acupuncture was provided by a trained nurse acupuncturist. Each patient received
six treatments in each phase of the study, with an intervening two-week washout
The primary outcome was worst breathlessness (visual analog
scale, 0 to 100 mm), with the sample size based on an 80% power to detect a
10-mm difference between treatment means. Secondary outcomes included the St
George's respiratory questionnaire score and treatment credibility.
Thirty-six patients were entered into the study (33 with COPD),
and 24 patients completed both treatment phases. The primary outcome improved
significantly during the course of the study, but there were no significant
treatment differences between acupuncture and the placebo/control of mock TENS
for either primary or secondary outcomes. The placebo was shown to be a credible
control. There was no evidence of a carryover effect from the first to second
phase of the study.
Researchers concluded that standardized acupuncture technique
does not show specific efficacy in disabling nonmalignant breathlessness, but
those entered into the study did experience clinically significant benefit from
Lewith GT, Prescott P, Davis CL.
Complementary Medicine Research Unit, Royal South Hants Hospital, Southampton,