ACUPUNCTURE AND ENDORPHINS

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to test whether acupuncture relieves the pain and psychiatric symptoms of the chronic pain syndrome and whether successful treatment involves increases in plasma immunoreactive levels of beta-endorphin and/or met-enkaphalin.

Five males and fifteen females received a comprehensive psychological and physical evaluation, including a social history, medical history, physical examination, and psychological testing. The psychological testing included the Symptom Checklist-90, the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, the Beck Depression Inventory and a Pain Rating Scale. After the evaluation process, patients who met the criteria for the study were taken off all narcotic or steroid medications and all drugs known to influence biogenic amine or endocrine function for a period of at least ten days. At the end of the detoxification period, blood samples were taken for measurements of plasma beta-endorphin and met-enkaphalin immunoreactivities. The patients then entered a course of 9 thirty-minute sessions of acupuncture. At the end of the treatment period, blood samples and psychological measures were repeated.

In twenty patients acupuncture treatment resulted in significant improvement of both pain and psychiatric symptoms and higher plasma levels of met-enkaphalin, but not beta-endorphin. The degree of symptom relief was correlated with the degree of plasma met-enkaphalin increase. These results suggest that acupuncture is beneficial in the treatment of both the pain and psychiatric symptoms of the chronic pain syndrome and that its action involves circulating met-enkaphalin.