Abstract
Acupuncture has been shown to exhibit distinct effects on the autonomic nervous system.
We tested whether the autonomic and psychological response to acupuncture depends
on the stimulation dose and the personality of the treated subjects. 52 healthy subjects
were randomized to receive either low dose (one needle at point Hegu bilaterally)
or high dose (additional 4 needles at non-acupoints bilaterally) acupuncture stimulation
after stratification according to their personality to “reduce” or “augment” incoming
stimuli. Outcomes were changes of electrodermal activity (EDA), high frequency component
of heart rate variability, heart rate, mean arterial blood pressure, respiration rate
and subjective parameters for psychological well being and perceived intensity of
needling. Electrodermal activity increased during needle insertion and decreased under
baseline when subjects were resting with the needles in the body for 20 min. The initial EDA increase was significantly (GEE ANCOVA p<0.001) more pronounced during high dose stimulation and independent of personality.
All other physiological parameters did not show any significant group effect. Strong
stimulated augmenters perceived acupuncture most painful and increased with their
psychological activation after the acupuncture session in contrast to the other groups,
which showed a decrease of activation in the pre–post comparison (overall group effect
p=0.032). The data indicate that during needle insertion high dose acupuncture stimulation
leads to a higher increase of sympathetic nerve activity than low dose stimulation
independent of personality. After needle insertion subjects who tend to augment incoming
stimuli might show a lack of psychological relaxation when receiving high dose stimulation.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: July 30, 2012
Accepted:
July 6,
2012
Received in revised form:
July 1,
2012
Received:
December 16,
2011
Identification
Copyright
© 2012 Elsevier B.V. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
