The Meridian Acupuncture Society (President Hi-Jun Park) held an ‘Online Academic Academy with the 3rd Basic Researcher and Clinical Oriental Medicine Doctor’ with the theme of ‘Acupuncture Research Focused on Science Advences: Bidirectional Treatment Mechanism of Acupuncture for Drug Addiction’ on the 19th. held
At the Academy on this day, Professor Yang Jae-ha of Daegu Haany University, who published a thesis in the journal ‘Science Advances’ last year with a study on the mechanism of acupuncture treatment for drug addiction, explained the study on the bidirectional control mechanism of acupuncture from the perspective of basic research. Dr. Kyung Hee Dong-Ju of Oriental Medicine Clinic introduced the two-way modulating effect of acupuncture, focusing on clinical cases.
On this day, Professor Yang Jae-ha introduced the research results that can control alcohol and drug addiction through acupuncture, and emphasized that acupuncture, a non-pharmacological treatment, will play a big role in the treatment of drug addiction.
Prof. Yang confirmed that stimulation of ‘Shinminhyeol’ with saliva had a two-way effect in controlling dopamine secretion deficiency and sensitization response in the midbrain marginal dopaminergic nervous system of alcohol-dependent animals. In other words, the neural mechanism for alcohol craving during alcohol dependence shows a bidirectional characteristic in which the middle brain limbic dopaminergic nervous system, the brain compensatory neural circuit, is activated and sensitized at the same time.
Professor Yang said, “Combining previous studies, it was concluded that saliva activates endorphins with reduced functional activity to increase the secretion of dopamine, and as the secretion of dopamine increases, it is concluded that alcohol-induced anxiety symptoms are reduced.” Under the hypothesis that ‘beta endorphins’ are linked to the mechanism by which acupuncture treatment controls alcohol and drug addiction, we plan to continue research to clarify the therapeutic mechanism for this.”
In addition, Dr. Woo Hyun-soo introduced acupuncture research trends related to addiction through Pubmed search, presented clinical cases related to the bidirectional effects of acupuncture, and suggested future research directions for acupuncture treatment as a clinical oriental physician.
According to Dr. Woo, a total of 378 papers were found when ‘addiction acupuncture’ was searched on Pubmed.
In addition, last year’s ‘Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews’ showed that acupuncture stimulation is a drug craving by normalizing the function of the reward circuit by engaging both sides in the incentive sensitization theory and the opponent motivational process theory, which are theories that seem to contradict the role of the mesolimbic dopamine pathway. He explained that the results showed that the phenomenon was suppressed.
Director Woo said, “With respect to the bidirectional therapeutic effect of acupuncture, oriental doctors naturally recognize this mechanism and seem to be applying it in clinical practice. “You might be wondering where the tower is and whether all the phenomena that occur in the body can be explained neurophysiologically,” he said.
In addition, Dr. Woo, who presented examples of actual clinical experiences with the bidirectional control mechanism of acupuncture, such as digestive system diseases, neuropsychiatric diseases, and circulatory diseases, said, “If you look at these treatment cases, the same acupuncture points are used for symptoms that are relative to each other. However, it will be difficult to clearly identify a single mechanism for this effect. It will be possible to lay the groundwork for linking to standardization furnaces,” he said.
In particular, Director Woo said, “While most acupuncture research has focused on ‘pain’, patients with various disease groups are also visiting the primary medical center, oriental clinic, in the future. “In this respect, this study to investigate the effects of acupuncture on addiction can be applied to various diseases such as anxiety, insomnia, and neurosis as well as addiction in frontline oriental medical institutions in the future. I think it is a more meaningful study in that it provided an opportunity.”
Meanwhile, the 4th lecture of the ‘Online Academic Academy with Basic Researchers and Clinical Oriental Physicians’ to provide opportunities for the Meridian and Acupuncture Society to introduce and exchange not only researchers interested in acupuncture, but also clinicians and oriental medical students related to oriental medicine research results is coming. It will be held on November 14th under the theme of ‘Going together for basic research and clinical research’.
