A New Attempt at Objective Judgement for Acupuncture Treatment Effects
10.3777/jjsam.33.395
- VernacularTitle:針灸治療効果に対する客観的判定の新しい試み
- Author:
Tatsuo MANABE
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- From:Journal of the Japan Society of Acupuncture and Moxibustion
1984;33(4):395-401
- CountryJapan
- Language:Japanese
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Abstract:
Since the greater part of the patients who undergo acupuncture therapy show little objective symptoms, it is difficult to determine the efficacy of acupuncture on an objective basis. An attempt was made in this paper to employ the measurement of finger skin temperature, which is supposed to express the relaxed condition, in acupuncture therapy for various cases so-called neurosis, pain of simple locomotrial diseases and so on.
In each treatment session, “self-control” was undertaken prior to acupuncture: The patients were made to listen to the “Self-Control; 1st stage” tape by Ikemi through a headphone to relax themselves physically and mentally with the aid of a biofeedback device developed for self-control training. The finger skin temperature or galvanic skin response was successively recorded during each treatment session (i. e. self-control and acupuncture) in order to determine how far the patients are relaxed. The intensity of acupuncture stimulation was instantaneously adjusted according to the fluctuation in the finger skin temperature. The data obtained from patients resting in the supine position at a constant room temperature was referred to.
Each case showed a peculiar response pattern, which was almost similar in every treatment session. In some cases, there were large differences between the data obtained during “self-control” and those during acupuncture.
The patients who were in a well relaxed condition during the treatment session showed marked result: ameliorated subjective symptoms, enlarged range of joint movement and so on.
It was thought that the magnitude of acupuncture stimulation should be controled in order to make the patient relaxed.
