Anti-histamines Promote Electroacupuncture Analgesia: Basic and Clinical Research

Summary

Acupuncture has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for around 3,000 years and is increasingly practiced worldwide. The effects of acupuncture in chronic pain have been investigated in many clinical trials. Histamine H1 receptor antagonists are commonly used for treating allergy. Recently, investigators found that histamine H1 receptor antagonists at relatively low doses facilitate EA analgesia in the acetic acid-induced abdominal writhing test. Investigators aim to further explore whether histamine H1 receptor antagonists also facilitate EA analgesia in humans.The aims of the proposed studies are to: Conduct a clinical trial to demonstrate that H1 receptor antagonists at relatively low doses facilitate EA analgesia in healthy volunteers. This study will recruit 40 healthy normal subjects (aged between 20 and 30 years) who will be randomly assigned to one of four groups: (1) Sham acupuncture (Shallow needling without electrical stimulation) at ST36 and GB34; (2) EA at ST36 and GB34; (3) EA at ST36 and GB34 plus low-dose chlorpheniramine (2 mg); (4) EA at ST36 and GB34 plus regular-dose chlorpheniramine (4 mg). The primary endpoint will be the pain threshold. It is expected that the completion of this proposed study will enhance our knowledge as to how acupuncture analgesia can be promoted by antihistamine drugs given at a low dose and help to define its application for clinical use.

Timeline

Start

2019-01-24

Primary completion

2019-06-27

Completion

2019-06-30

Publications

• Background Traiffort E, Pollard H, Moreau J, Ruat M, Schwartz JC, Martinez-Mir MI, Palacios JM. Pharmacological characterization and autoradiographic localization of histamine H2 receptors in human brain identified with [125I]iodoaminopotentidine. J Neurochem. 1992 Jul;59(1):290-9. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-4159.1992.tb08903.x.
• Background Zhang WT, Jin Z, Luo F, Zhang L, Zeng YW, Han JS. Evidence from brain imaging with fMRI supporting functional specificity of acupoints in humans. Neurosci Lett. 2004 Jan 2;354(1):50-3. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2003.09.080.
• Lee YC, Tu CH, Chung HY, Luo ST, Chu YT, MacDonald IJ, Kotha P, Huang CC, Lane HY, Lin JG, Chen YH. Antihistamine promotes electroacupuncture analgesia in healthy human subjects: A pilot study. J Tradit Complement Med. 2022 Apr 21;12(5):511-517. doi: 10.1016/j.jtcme.2022.04.003. eCollection 2022 Sep.

Drugs

Indications

No indication recorded.