Magnetic Non-invasive Auricular Acupuncture During Eye-Exam for Retinopathy of Prematurity in Preterm Infants: A Multicentre Randomized Controlled Trial.

Eye exam for Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a painful procedure and pharmacological analgesia might be ineffective. We hypothesized that magnetic auricular acupuncture (MAA) compared to placebo will decrease pain during ROP exam in preterm infants. Multicentre randomized controlled trial conducted in three hospitals (Australia, Canada, and Malaysia).

A Review of Non-Pharmacological Treatments for Pain Management in Newborn Infants.

Pain is a major problem in sick newborn infants, especially for those needing intensive care. Pharmacological pain relief is the most commonly used, but might be ineffective and has side effects, including long-term neurodevelopmental sequelae. The effectiveness and safety of alternative analgesic methods are ambiguous.

Magnetic noninvasive acupuncture for infant comfort (MAGNIFIC) - a single-blinded randomised controlled pilot trial.

Aim: To determine the safety and feasibility of auricular noninvasive magnetic acupuncture (MA) to decrease infant pain during heel pricks.

Methods: Infants requiring heel pricks for blood collection were randomised to either MA (n = 21) or placebo (P) (n = 19) after parental informed consent. MA or placebo stickers were placed on both ears according to the Battlefield Protocol by an unblinded investigator and left on for 3 days.

The Antidepressant Effect of Laser Acupuncture: A Comparison of the Resting Brain's Default Mode Network in Healthy and Depressed Subjects During Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

Background: It has been suggested that the antidepressant effect of laser acupuncture involves modulation of the default mode network (DMN) or resting state network (RSN). In this study, the authors investigated changes in the DMN during laser acupuncture in depressed and nondepressed participants.

Objective: To aim of this study was to determine if the modulation of the DMN effects by laser acupuncture in depressed participants are different from those of nondepressed participants.

Differential brain effects of laser and needle acupuncture at LR8 using functional MRI.

Objective: While needle acupuncture is a well-accepted technique, laser acupuncture is being increasingly used in clinical practice. The differential effects of the two techniques are of interest. We examine this in relation to brain effects of activation of LR8, a putative acupuncture point for depression, using functional MRI (fMRI).

Laser acupuncture for depression: a randomised double blind controlled trial using low intensity laser intervention.

Introduction: Trials of acupuncture for the treatment of depression have produced mixed results. We examined the effectiveness of laser acupuncture compared with placebo acupuncture for the treatment of major depression.

Methods: A randomised, double blinded, placebo controlled trial was conducted in Sydney, Australia.

The brain effects of laser acupuncture in healthy individuals: an FMRI investigation.

Background: As laser acupuncture is being increasingly used to treat mental disorders, we sought to determine whether it has a biologically plausible effect by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the cerebral activation patterns from laser stimulation of relevant acupoints.

Methodology/principal Findings: Ten healthy subjects were randomly stimulated with a fibreoptic infrared laser on 4 acupoints (LR14, CV14, LR8 and HT7) used for depression following the principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), and 1 control non-acupoint (sham point) in a blocked design (alternating verum laser and placebo laser/rest blocks), while the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) fMRI response was recorded from the whole brain on a 3T scanner. Many of the acupoint laser stimulation conditions resulted in different patterns of neural activity.