Phantom Needling: Novel Sham Acupuncture Technique

 

A Vitaly Napadow article which explores using a video camera to suggest that a patient is getting acupuncture, when in fact they are not.  There are many interesting findings.  A key finding that affects my work and conclusions is that vagal enhancement seems to accompany the placebo effect.  So what that means is that the positive clinical effects that I see with vagal increase could all be placebo?  Too early to tell.  This is a topic I will be following closely.  Of note is that they do not use HRV in this paper, rather skin conductance and pupil size to monitor autonomic activity.  Also of note is that my work is referenced. (Thanks Vitaly!)
note: HR is heart rate  PS is pupil size
…phasic HR decrease and with smaller phasic PS increase,
suggesting that credibility-mediated acupuncture sensation raised
parasympathetic activity, and the increased activity may be linked
with clinical outcomes in patients (i.e. placebo effect) as the
parasympathetic shift or the sympathetic drop has been believed to
be one of underlying mechanisms in clinical acupuncture efficacy
http://www.plosone.org/article/fetchObject.action?uri=info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0104582&representation=PDF