Auricular Acupressure Can Modulate Pain Threshold.

Antonietta Santoro,Carmine Secondulfo,Letizia Lorusso,Andrea Viggiano,Stefania Lucia Nori,Marcellino Monda

doi:10.1155/2015/457390

Abstract

The objective of our study was to investigate if auriculotherapy (AT) can modulate pain threshold. In our experiments, AT consisted of placing Vaccaria seeds over the “fingers point” of one ear. Two groups of healthy volunteers were enrolled for the study. Each subject was asked to perform an autoalgometric test developed by our group on three occasions: before, 1 hour after, AT and 24 hours after AT. Participants of the first group received a 2-minute long session of AT, while participants of the second group received a 2-minute long session of sham treatment, consisting of a puncture/massage above the skin of the neck. The autoalgometric test consisted of applying an increasing pressure with the finger-tips and finger-backs of four fingers by the subjects themselves (i.e., eight sites were evaluated) against a round-shaped needle for two times: until a minimum pain sensation (first time, minimal test) or a maximally tolerable pain sensation (second time, maximal test). Our results showed a significant higher pain threshold in the maximal test at 24 hours after AT compared to sham treatment. This result indicates for the first time that AT can increase pain tolerability, rather than affecting the minimal pain threshold.

Highlights

One hour after the treatment with Vaccaria seed there was no significant difference in the pain threshold between the two experimental groups, either in the minimal test or in the maximal test. 24 hours after the treatment, there was an increase in pain threshold in the treated group compared to the control group for the maximal test, but not for the minimal test (Figure 3)
Our study indicates that AT is able to increase pain threshold in healthy volunteers by using autoalgometry, a novel method to test pain sensation [35]
Our method avoids any external interference; the autoalgometry procedure permits that only the subject under evaluation can control the pressure applied to the tip, so that the experimenter could not physically interfere with the procedure

Summary

Introduction

Auriculotherapy (AT) is a treatment method aimed at normalizing body’s dysfunction through the stimulation of definite points on the surface of the ear. In Chinese traditional medicine it was believed that the stimulation of auricular acupoints could regulate self-energy balance alleviating pathological conditions and pain through restoring flow energy into the body [1, 2]. To assess the claim by French and Chinese ear acupuncture that there was a somatotopic organization of the body represented upon the human auricle, Oleson and colleagues examined 40 subjects. Patients were medically examined to determine areas of their body where there was musculoskeletal pain. The physician conducting the auricular diagnosis had no prior knowledge of the patient’s medical condition but examined the patient’s ear for areas of elevated skin conductivity or tenderness according to the French’s and the Chinese’s method of diagnosis. The concordance between the established medical diagnosis and the auricular diagnoses

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion