Noneffect of manual needle acupuncture on experimental pain parameters in healthy young men.

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to assess the effect of manual acupuncture on experimental pain parameters in healthy participants.

Design: The experimental design was a repeated-measures, three-group pre- and postprocedure. All subjects participated in a control, sham, and acupuncture procedure, separated by 1 week, in a counterbalanced sequence to forestall an order effect.

Settings/location: Data were collected in a laboratory environment.

Subjects: The participants included 12 healthy young men (mean age 21.3 ± 2.6 years; height 183.8 ± 5 cm; weight 77.7 ± 9.5 kg).

Interventions: The control procedure comprised assessing the experimental pain parameters before and after a quiet rest for 20 minutes. The sham procedure was performed with the needle inserted bilaterally 1-1.5 cm outside each acupoint. The manual acupuncture procedure was performed at two bilateral acupoints of LI-4 (Large Intestine 4, Hegu) and ST-44 (Stomach 44, Nei Ting).

Outcome Measures: Pain parameters assessed included the pain threshold, nociceptive reflex threshold, and nociceptive reflex amplitude.

Results: Repeated-measures analysis of variance between pre- and postcontrol, sham, and acupuncture procedures for pain threshold, nociceptive reflex threshold, and nociceptive reflex amplitude revealed no significant difference.

Conclusions: Manual acupuncture at bilateral acupoints LI-4 and ST-44 did not show a change in pain threshold, nociceptive flexion reflex threshold, or the nociceptive reflex amplitude in healthy participants.