Exploring the spatial effects of acupuncture analgesia

Abstract

In recent years, researchers have conducted in-depth research on the mechanism of acupuncture analgesia and made many important discoveries. These studies indicate that acupuncture can effectively alleviate pain and improve pain mood. This article summarizes the mechanisms of acupuncture treatment for different types of pain, including peripheral input effects, spinal cord response effects, and brain integration effects. It provides support for the idea that acupuncture analgesia is not a local reaction through a single pathway, but a holistic effect with network connections. However, it is unclear whether the peripheral, spinal cord, and brain levels have equal analgesic effects during the analgesic process, or which level dominates the analgesic effect; The issue of whether the dominant analgesic level is consistent for different types of pain has not been resolved and further experimental research is needed.

Keywords: Acupuncture analgesia; Arthralgia; Neuralgia; Spatial network; Visceral pain.