Back to Search
Start Over
Is Skin-Touch Sham Needle Not Placebo? A Double-Blind Crossover Study on Pain Alleviation.
- Source :
-
Evidence-based Complementary & Alternative Medicine (eCAM) . 2015, p1-7. 7p. 2 Diagrams, 1 Graph. - Publication Year :
- 2015
-
Abstract
- It remains an open question whether placebo/sham acupuncture, in which the needle tip presses the skin, can be used as a placebo device for research on pain. We compare the analgesic effect of the skin-touch placebo needle with that of the no-touch placebo needle, in which the needle tip does not touch the skin, in a double-blind crossover manner including no-treatment control in 23 healthy volunteers. The subjects received painful electrical stimulation in the forearm before and during needle retention to the LI 4 acupoint and after the removal of the needle and rated pain intensity using a visual analogue scale. We found no significant difference in analgesic effects among the skin-touch placebo needle, no-touch placebo needle, and no-treatment control at every point before, during, and after the treatments (p > 0.05). The results indicate that the skin-touch placebo needle can be used as a placebo device in clinical studies on pain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1741427X
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Evidence-based Complementary & Alternative Medicine (eCAM)
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 108824516
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/152086