Department of Acupuncture, Moxibustion & Meridian Research Group, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Daejeon, South Korea.
Acupunct Med. 2013 Jun;31(2):132-42. doi: 10.1136/acupmed-2012-010279. Epub 2013 Mar 13.
De qi is a sensation experienced by a patient or an acupuncturist during acupuncture treatment. Although de qi is considered to be important in acupuncture treatment, there are not many studies about de qi and its character. The purpose of this study is to review de qi questionnaires and evaluate the relationship between de qi and acupuncture points, stimulation and treatment effects.
A search was conducted using three English-language databases (PubMed, Cochrane and ScienceDirect) and seven Korean databases with the keywords 'de qi' and 'needle sensation'. The included studies were then categorised as following: (1) de qi measurement tools, (2) the relationship between de qi and acupuncture points, (3) the relationship between de qi and stimulation, (4) the relationship between de qi and treatment effects and (5) attitudes and opinions toward de qi.
Several questionnaires have been developed to evaluate de qi, and the most frequent sensation in those questionnaires was 'heavy' and 'numb'. Although a few studies showed specificity to acupuncture points, information is still lacking to be able to draw a clear conclusion about the relationship between de qi and acupuncture points. Also, greater de qi was elicited in real acupuncture than placebo acupuncture in many studies. The relationship between de qi and treatment effects was controversial.
It seems that real acupuncture induced greater de qi than sham acupuncture, and the relationship between de qi, acupuncture points and treatment effects was controversial. However, the current literature evaluating de qi is not sufficient to derive clear conclusions. Further studies with more objective indices and rigorous methodologies are needed.
得气是患者或针灸师在接受针灸治疗时所感受到的一种感觉。尽管得气被认为是针灸治疗中的重要因素，但目前关于得气及其特征的研究并不多。本研究的目的是综述得气问卷，并评估得气与穴位、刺激和治疗效果之间的关系。
使用三个英文数据库（PubMed、Cochrane 和 ScienceDirect）和七个韩国数据库，以“得气”和“针感”为关键词进行检索。然后将纳入的研究分为以下几类：（1）得气测量工具，（2）得气与穴位的关系，（3）得气与刺激的关系，（4）得气与治疗效果的关系，（5）对得气的态度和意见。
已经开发了几种评估得气的问卷，这些问卷中最常见的感觉是“沉重”和“麻木”。尽管有几项研究显示出对穴位的特异性，但仍缺乏信息，无法得出关于得气与穴位之间关系的明确结论。此外，在许多研究中，真实针灸比安慰剂针灸更能引起得气。得气与治疗效果之间的关系存在争议。
似乎真实针灸比假针灸更能引起得气，得气、穴位和治疗效果之间的关系存在争议。然而，目前评估得气的文献还不足以得出明确的结论。需要进一步进行更客观指标和更严格方法学的研究。
