Long-term therapeutic effects of electro-acupuncture for chronic neck and shoulder pain--a double blind study.

Thirty-seven patients with chronic neck and shoulder pain were treated with a series of electro-acupuncture treatments. All patients had been unresponsive to previous conventional and placebo treatments for their pain. A double blind evaluation of acupuncture results and hypnotic profiles failed to demonstrate any correlation between the two. Twenty-four or 64.9% of our patients obtained significant long term improvement. An increase in regional microcirculation by peripheral sympathetic blockade from electro-acupuncture is thought to be responsible for the tissue healing and subsequent pain relief.