Using Diffuse Noxious Inhibitory Control (DNIC) to Predict Acupuncture Therapy Outcome: A Pilot Study

University of Washington10 enrolled

Overview

The investigators hypothesize that acupuncture modifies the DNIC efficiency and that DNIC can serve as a predictor to identify 'good responders' to acupuncture early in therapy.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

Conditions

Pain

Interventions

AcupunctureOTHER

Electroacupuncture

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 18 YearsMax age: 60 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Healthy women with a progesterone-coated intrauterine device (Mirena), and * Men greater than or equal to 18 years old. Exclusion Criteria: * Acupuncture treatment in the previous six weeks, to discount any persisting effect of acupuncture. * Treatment of a pain condition with pain medication. * Regular use of benzodiazepines. * Skin diseases, such as scleroderma, psoriasis or eczema. * An adverse event due to acupuncture therapy. * Pregnant women. * Women without a progesterone-coated intrauterine device (Mirena). * Anyone older than 60 years of age, fatigued, with a pacemaker ICD, artificial joint, prolonged bleeding time/hemophilia, open wounds, or a known susceptibility to profound analgesia after acupuncture treatment.

Locations (1)

University of Washington

Seattle, Washington, United States

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Diffuse Noxious Inhibitory Control Efficiency

The efficiency of diffuse noxious inhibitory control (DNIC) is a measure of one's ability to inhibit pain perception. DNIC efficiency is assessed by a psychophysical test that involves a heat thermode as the "test stimulus" and a warm water bath as the "conditioning stimulus". The results of this test will be used as the primary outcome measure.

Time frame: Week 0, 2, 4, 6, and 12 of acupuncture therapy

Data from ClinicalTrials.gov

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