Letter to the Editor
Preventive effect of acupuncture on histamine-induced itch: A blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover trial

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Cited by (60)

  • Acupuncture ameliorates not only atopic dermatitis-like skin inflammation but also acute and chronic serotonergic itch possibly through blockade of 5-HT<inf>2</inf> and 5-HT<inf>7</inf> receptors in mice

    2021, Brain, Behavior, and Immunity
    Citation Excerpt :

    The recent results of meta-analysis showed that acupuncture therapy was effective to alleviate itch compared with placebo acupuncture and no treatment group (Yu et al., 2015). Indeed, many previous studies have shown that acupuncture reduces histamine-induced itch in healthy volunteers (Min et al., 2019; Pfab et al., 2005) or in patients with atopic dermatitis (Pfab et al., 2010). Another study suggested that cold stimulation at LI11 also attenuated histamine-dependent scratching behavior in mice (Tsai et al., 2014).

  • Effects of Stress on Itch

    2020, Clinical Therapeutics
    Citation Excerpt :

    Randomized controlled trials investigating the effects of acupuncture on itch have yielded promising results. Pfab et al117 showed a significant reduction in experimentally induced itch by histamine after acupuncture point pretreatment compared with placebo-point pretreatment and no pretreatment. Similarly, Belgrade et al118 found that histamine-induced itch levels were lower with acupuncture than with either pseudo-acupuncture or with no intervention.

  • Adjunctive Management of Itch in Atopic Dermatitis

    2017, Dermatologic Clinics
    Citation Excerpt :

    A systematic review of 70 RCTs of CATs for AD supports the use of acupuncture and acupressure as adjunctive measures in AD management.232 Acupuncture reduces histamine and allergen-induced itch in healthy volunteers233–236 and AD patients.237 In a recent double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover RCT, both verum acupuncture and cetirizine, reduced type 1 hypersensitivity-induced itch in AD patients.238

  • Electroacupuncture inhibits pruritogen-induced spinal microglial activation in mice

    2016, Brain Research
    Citation Excerpt :

    GNTI significantly increased Iba1 and phospho-p38 expression in the spinal cord as compared with saline, while EA (LI4, LI11) reduced GNTI-induced increases in Iba1 and phospho-p38 expression. Clinical studies have demonstrated the efficacy of acupuncture in alleviating itching, including histamine-induced itch (Pfab et al., 2005), type I hypersensitivity itch (Pfab et al., 2010), nasal itch (Xue et al., 2007), refractory uremic pruritus (Chou et al., 2005) and neurogenic pruritus (Stellon, 2002). In our previous work, we found that s.c. injection of GNTI to the back of neck induced scratching behavior and increased c-Fos expression on the lateral side of the superficial layer of the dorsal horn in the cervical spinal cord; these effects were attenuated by EA at LI4 and LI11, but not at ST36 (Chen et al., 2013).

  • Acupuncture for seasonal allergic rhinitis: A randomized controlled trial

    2015, Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology
    Citation Excerpt :

    These anti-inflammatory effects could be associated with multiple physiologic pathways, including the hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal axis,25–28 sympathetic pathways,27,28 and possibly parasympathetic cholinergic pathways.29–32 Other relevant anti-inflammatory effects of acupuncture include antihistamine effects33–36 and downregulation of proinflammatory cytokines37–43 and proinflammatory neuropeptides.44,45 Acupuncture also has been proved to down-regulate neurotrophins,46–51 suppress the expression of cyclo-oxygenases 1 and 2 and inducible nitric oxide during experimentally induced inflammation, and suppress other reactions related to anti-inflammatory actions.52–59

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