Manual acupuncture for analgesia during electromyography: a pilot study.

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate the analgesic effect of acupuncture for needle electromyography and to validate a sham acupuncture needle.

DESIGN

Randomized, double-blinded, controlled study.

SETTING

University-based electrodiagnostics laboratory.

PARTICIPANTS

Fifty-one subjects referred for electrodiagnostic evaluation.

INTERVENTIONS

Before the electromyography examination, either real acupuncture needles or telescopic sham needles were applied.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Visual analog scale of pain and unpleasantness after 3 muscles were examined with electromyography. Pretest pain was subtracted to give a measurement of pain attributable to the electromyography. Subjects were asked which needle they thought they had received.

RESULTS

Twenty-six subjects were randomized to the treatment group and 25 to the sham group. Pain in the treatment group (-.96) was less than in the control group (9.68), but it was not statistically significant (P=.13). Post hoc analysis, excluding 5 subjects known to have been treated by the novice acupuncturist, showed a significant difference of 14.4mm (P=.02). The proportion of subjects who thought they received real needles in the acupuncture group (69%) did not differ from the proportion in the control group (48%) (P=.13).

CONCLUSIONS

Acupuncture may represent an effective form of analgesia for electromyography. This is the first study to suggest independently the telescopic sham acupuncture needle as an effective control.