Neuropeptides and Acupuncture: Coincidence or Specificity?

Abstract: Neuropeptides have been implicated in many important brain activities. The continuing discovery of new neuropeptides, and of new functions for already discovered neuropeptides leads to the speculation that more than one neuropeptide can be implicated in any acupuncture treatment. The past and current research on neuropeptides involved in mediating acupuncture effects are reviewed, and illustrate some of the pitfalls of such research. The problem in identifying which one(s) mediate(s) which specific organism response is not only related to the kind of acupuncture manipulations used but also to the methodology and experimental design adopted to rule out other well-known phenomena, such as stress and conditioning, superimposed on the acupuncture effects.

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