Sunday, April 29, 2012
New Blog Address!
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Effects of acupuncture on stress-induced relapse to cocaine-seeking in rats
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I can't evaluate the validity of this study, but wanted to cite it because they use the same point, Heart 7, as in this study, that looked at alcoholism in rats. In the clinic there is a decline in alcohol consumption in patients that is quite pronounced. The two studies look at different mechanisms for the craving and effect of acupuncture, but I wanted to draw attention to the similarity.
I can't evaluate the validity of this study, but wanted to cite it because they use the same point, Heart 7, as in this study, that looked at alcoholism in rats. In the clinic there is a decline in alcohol consumption in patients that is quite pronounced. The two studies look at different mechanisms for the craving and effect of acupuncture, but I wanted to draw attention to the similarity.
Effects of acupuncture on stress-induced relapse to cocaine-seeking in rats.
Yoon SS, Yang EJ, Lee BH, Jang EY, Kim HY, Choi SM, Steffensen SC, Yang CH.Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2012 Mar 29.
College of Oriental Medicine, Daegu Haany University, 165 Sang-Dong, Suseong-Gu, Daegu, 706-828, South Korea.
Abstract
RATIONALE:
Cocaine addiction is associated with high rates of relapse, and stress has been identified as a major risk factor. We have previously demonstrated that acupuncture reduces drug self-administration and dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), a brain structure implicated in stress-induced reinstatement of drug-seeking behavior.
OBJECTIVE:
This study was conducted to investigate the effects of acupuncture on footshock-induced reinstatement of cocaine-seeking and the expression of c-Fos and the transcription factor cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB) in the NAc, used as markers of neuronal activation in conditions of stress-induced reinstatement to cocaine.
METHODS:
Male Sprague-Dawley rats were trained to self-administer cocaine (1.0 mg/kg) for 14 days, followed by extinction and then footshock stress. Acupuncture was applied at bilateral Shenmen (HT7) points for 1 min after footshock stress.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS:
Acute footshock stress reinstated cocaine-seeking behavior and enhanced c-Fos expression and phosphorylated CREB (pCREB) activation in the NAc shell in cocaine pre-exposed rats. On the other hand, acupuncture at HT7, but not at control point (LI5), markedly reduced reinstatement of cocaine-seeking (86.5 % inhibition vs. control value), c-Fos expression (81.7% inhibition), and pCREB activation (79.3% inhibition) in the NAc shell. These results suggest that acupuncture attenuates stress-induced relapse by regulating neuronal activation in the NAc shell.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22453546
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Factors contributing to Therapeutic Effects Evaluated in Acupuncture Clinical Trials
This is a comprehensive look at what is known about the different types of acupuncture point stimulation. A very nice reference article to have, and has free access to the article online.
Factors contributing to therapeutic effects evaluated in acupuncture clinical trials.
Shi GX, Yang XM, Liu CZ, Wang LP.
Trials. 2012 Apr 21;13(1):42.
Abstract ABSTRACT: Acupuncture treatment has been widely used for many conditions, while results of the increasing numbers of randomized trials and systematic reviews remain controversial. Acupuncture is a complex intervention of both specific and non-specific factors associated with therapeutic benefit. Apart from needle insertion, issues such as needling sensation, psychological factors, acupoint specificity, acupuncture manipulation, and needle duration also have relevant influences on the therapeutic effects of acupuncture. Taking these factors into consideration would have considerable implications for the design and interpretation of clinical trials.
My New HRV System! Viva Vivosense!
For my most recent blog posts, please click here.
This is what my new analysis system data looks like on the screen. One can customize which parameters to look at, what window length to use, but most important, it has an extremely sophisticated, automatic method to manage artifact, which is the bane of HRV analysis. The company website is http://vivonoetics.com
This data is from a patient who is a classic "responder." She had moderately severe panic attacks on the freeway which were basically eliminated with acupuncture. She also gets very "blissed out" with every treatment and so comes often just because it feels so therapeutic to her. If you notice in the top green linline there are gray areas. These represent areas that were removed due to artifact. She had quite a few! the next line is LFR/HFR during the session. As you can see it goes down, which is what we would expect with a responder. The next line is Sample Entropy, which tends to go up, also what you would expect. And the last is pnn50 trend which increases as one would expect with increasing HRV with acupuncture.
This is what my new analysis system data looks like on the screen. One can customize which parameters to look at, what window length to use, but most important, it has an extremely sophisticated, automatic method to manage artifact, which is the bane of HRV analysis. The company website is http://vivonoetics.com
This data is from a patient who is a classic "responder." She had moderately severe panic attacks on the freeway which were basically eliminated with acupuncture. She also gets very "blissed out" with every treatment and so comes often just because it feels so therapeutic to her. If you notice in the top green linline there are gray areas. These represent areas that were removed due to artifact. She had quite a few! the next line is LFR/HFR during the session. As you can see it goes down, which is what we would expect with a responder. The next line is Sample Entropy, which tends to go up, also what you would expect. And the last is pnn50 trend which increases as one would expect with increasing HRV with acupuncture.
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