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The Role of Touch in Acupuncture Treatment
- Source :
- Acupuncture in Medicine. 35:148-152
- Publication Year :
- 2017
- Publisher :
- SAGE Publications, 2017.
-
Abstract
- Acupuncture is a therapeutic treatment that is characterised by the insertion of a needle at a particular location on the body. Acupuncture stimulation includes sensory-discriminative and affective-social touch dimensions. In this review, we discuss the role of touch during acupuncture stimulation with an emphasis on the therapeutic, sensory-discriminative and affective-social aspects. In the discriminative dimension, de qi, which is associated with needling, includes a combination of various sensations, such as heaviness, numbness, soreness and distension. Achieving the appropriate de qi sensation appears to be fundamental to the therapeutic outcome following acupuncture treatment. In the affective dimension, the acupuncture procedure typically includes gentle manual touch stimulation, which induces feelings of calm and well-being, perhaps by activating C tactile fibres. Enhanced activity of C tactile afferents may induce a ‘limbic touch’ response, resulting in emotional and hormonal reactions. Because acupuncture is a ‘therapist intensive’ and complex intervention, it is necessary to understand the role of social touch between the practitioner and patient. Both sensory-discriminative and affective-social touch aspects play an important role in the therapeutic effect of acupuncture treatment in clinical practice.
- Subjects :
- medicine.medical_specialty
Qi
Therapeutic treatment
media_common.quotation_subject
Acupuncture Therapy
Sensation
Stimulation
De qi sensation
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
medicine
Acupuncture
Humans
media_common
Dry needling
Acupuncture stimulation
business.industry
General Medicine
Acupuncture treatment
030205 complementary & alternative medicine
Complementary and alternative medicine
Feeling
Needles
Touch
Physical therapy
Neurology (clinical)
business
Acupuncture Points
030217 neurology & neurosurgery
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 17599873 and 09645284
- Volume :
- 35
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Acupuncture in Medicine
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....42ed151dcdbdebeb07b0a94422cd2a25