We have frequently obtained good results with difficult pain using an improved acupuncture anesthesia method, cutaneous meridian stimulation, in which the patients himself can administer stimulation. However we have had a great variety of experience using these methods. There have even been cases in which therapy had no effect whatsoever. It has long been known that the effects of stimulation produced analgesia, (SPA) one form of acupuncture anesthesia, vary remarkably from person to person.
In one hand it has been indicated that the pain-killing effects are related with the endogenous morphine-like substances however recently Takeshige and colleagues, believing that the individual differences in effect are based on the activity of the individual's amino peptidase, administered the peptidase interferrent, D-phenylalanine (DPA) and proved experimentally that so doing causing a change from ineffective to effective in SPA results.
We studied the effects produced by DPA on the cutaneous pain threshold using transcutaneous nerve stimulation, by administering DPA in cases in which the pain threshold did not rise due to transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation alone. The subjects of the study were 9 healthy volunteers between the ages of 24-30 with no neurological diseases and 8 stubborn pain patients. The stimulation points were 2, right LI-4 and right LI-10. Stimulation was administered using a spike-type conductor rubber external electrode.
Results
1. Looking at changes in the pain threshold due to transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation only, it was observed that in 11 of 17 cases there was almost no change or slight fluctuation around the pain threshold.
2. Upon administering 4g. DPA to the 6 cases in which the pain threshold did not change and administering transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation in the same manner as before, the threshold rose in 1 case.
3. The serum concentration of phenylalanine increased 5 times that of pre-medication levels.