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New Study Provides Evidence That Chinese Acupuncture Affects Brain's Ability To Regulate Pain
Using brain imaging, the new study is the first to provide evidence that traditional Chinese acupuncture affects the brain's long-term ability to regulate pain.
The results appear online ahead of print in the September Journal of NeuroImage.
In the study, researchers at the U-M Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center showed acupuncture increased the binding availability of mu-opoid receptors (MOR) in regions of the brain that process and dampen pain signals - specifically the cingulate, insula, caudate, thalamus and amygdala.
Opioid painkillers, such as morphine, codeine and other medications, are thought to work by binding to these opioid receptors in the brain and spinal cord.
"The increased binding availability of these receptors was associated with reductions in pain," says Richard E. Harris, Ph.D., researcher at the U-M Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center and a research assistant professor of anesthesiology at the U-M Medical School.
One implication of this research is that patients with chronic pain treated with acupuncture might be more responsive to opioid medications since the receptors seem to have more binding availability, Harris says.
These findings could spur a new direction in the field of acupuncture research following recent controversy over large studies showing that sham acupuncture is as effective as real acupuncture in reducing chronic pain.
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