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

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Pain
• Interventions: Other: Acupuncture

• Registration Number: NCT01088867
• Lead Sponsor: University of Washington

Brief Summary

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.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2010-03
• Study First Submitted: 2010-03-12
• Study First Submitted QC: 2010-03-16
• Study First Posted: 2010-03-17
• Primary Completion: 2010-07
• Study Completion: 2010-07
• Status Verified: 2013-06
• Last Update Submitted: 2013-06-17
• Last Update Posted: 2013-06-19

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 10

Inclusion Criteria

• Healthy women with a progesterone-coated intrauterine device (Mirena), and
• Men greater than or equal to 18 years old.

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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.

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Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: SINGLE_GROUP

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Acupuncture	Acupuncture	14 weeks of electroacupuncture therapy.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Diffuse Noxious Inhibitory Control Efficiency	Week 0, 2, 4, 6, and 12 of acupuncture therapy	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.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

University of Washington; 🇺🇸 Seattle, Washington, United States