Zhen ci yan jiu = Acupuncture research / [Zhongguo yi xue ke xue yuan Yi xue qing bao yan jiu suo bian ji]
-
Our previous study demonstrated that acupuncture increased pain threshold of the body, especially in the inflammatory area. Because acupuncture can promote the release of enkephalin in the brain, it is possible that analgesic effect of acupuncture could be further strengthened by administration of fentanylan opioid receptor's agonist and droperidol-dopamine receptor's agonist at same time. In present study arthritic rats induced by freund's complete adjuvant were divided into two groups. ⋯ There is a statistical significant difference between this common dose group and acupuncture control group which only kept analgesic effect 90 minutes, P less than 0.01. When only 1/5 dose of these drugs with acupuncture was applied to arthritic rats, not only the pain threshold reached to 180 + 3% (P less than 0.01), but also the analgesic effect persisted as long as 120 minutes (P less than 0.01). The results from mentioned above suggested that if a small dose of drug is no effect in usual treatment, it could still play a role and reduce the pharmacological side effect by way of combining acupuncture application.