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Autonomic Nervous System activity during acupuncture
treatment: "A pilot study of patients with migraine"
American Academy of Medical Acupuncture Conference Los
Angeles, CA April, 2002
Kristen T. Sparrow, M.D.
The autonomic nervous system has been implicated as one of
the mechanisms by which acupuncture achieves its results.i,
ii, iii, iv, v, vi Heart rate Variability (HRV) is a
simple non-invasive method to evaluate the contribution of
sympathetic and parasympathetic input to the SA node. HRV
can give insight into the autonomic activity in a given
clinical situation. There is also considerable evidence
that migraine patients have a relative vasomotor
instability,vii with enhanced variations in their
heart-rate variability measurements, which can be affected
by independent interventions.viii,ix Since migraine is a
condition which is possibly helped by acupuncturex, it is
conceivable that an alteration in the patient's
sympathetic response is implicated in acupuncture's
effectiveness. In this study, physiological data (heart
rate, and the standard deviation thereof, skin resistance,
peripheral temperature, very low frequency, low frequency
and high frequency heart rate variability spectra) was
collected on eight migraine patients during routine
acupuncture treatment for migraine. The patients were
given diagnoses according to TCM (Traditional Chinese
Medicine) and were treated with body acupuncture. The data
were analyzed retrospectively to determine if any patterns
developed.
From my data there seemed to be a typical pattern that
emerged in patients who were helped by acupuncture.
Patients who were not helped by the acupuncture treatment
did not have the same profile. From this initial study,
HRV may be a very promising tool in elucidating the
mechanisms of acupuncture's effectiveness in certain
clinical situations. Furthermore, it may even help to
determine which migraine patients may benefit from
acupuncture treatment. A more extensive, controlled study
would be useful to confirm the findings in this initial
study.
i M. Ernst, M.Lee Experimental Neurology 94, 1-10 1986
ii. S. Anderson, T.Lundeberg, Medical Hypothesis 45
(1995):3 p. 273-81
iii. S.Knardahl Pain 75 (1998) 19-25
iv. D. Thomas, S. Collins Clinical rheumatology, 1992, 11
N01, 55-59
v. E.Stener-Victorin et al Human Reproduction vol.11 no.6
pp 1314-1317, 1996
vi. M. Hammar et al Journal of Urology, Vol161, 853-856
March 1999
vii M.Malik, Heart Rate Variability, Futura Publishing Co.
1995
viii AppelS. et al., Headache 1992;32:10-17
ix Ziegelman, M Headache 1992;32:169-174
x NIH Consensus Conference JAMA 1998 Nov.4;280(17):
1518-24
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