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Article: Are minimal, superficial or sham acupuncture procedures acceptable as inert placebo controls?
- Article from:
- Acupuncture in Medicine
- Article date:
- January 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 British Medical Acupuncture Society. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Abstract
Most controlled trials of acupuncture have used minimal, superficial, sham, or 'placebo' acupuncture. It has recently been demonstrated that light touch of the skin stimulates mechanoreceptors coupled to slow conducting unmyelinated (C) afferents resulting in activity in the insular region, but not in the somatosensory cortex. Activity in these C tactile afferents has been suggested to induce a 'limbic touch' response resulting in emotional and hormonal reactions. It is likely that, in many acupuncture studies, control procedures that are meant to be inert are in fact activating these C tactile afferents and consequently result in the alleviation of the ...