CLINICAL TRIAL article
Front. Pain Res.
Sec. Non-Pharmacological Treatment of Pain
A randomized controlled trial of acupoint application for postherpetic neuralgia
Provisionally accepted
- 1山东中医药大学针灸推拿学院, 济南历下区, China
- 2Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, China
- 3山东省妇幼保健院, 济南市, China
- 4枣庄市中医院, 枣庄市, China
- 5Weifang Traditional Chinese Hospital, Weifang, China
- 6山东大学第二附属医院, 济南市, China
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OBJECTIVE: To assess the clinical efficacy of acupressure application in treating PHN of the qi stagnation and blood stasis type, as well as its impact on blood inflammatory factors, T-cell subpopulations, and neurotransmitter levels. METHODS: A total of 134 patients diagnosed with PHN characterized by qi stagnation and blood stasis were randomly assigned to either the treatment group or the control group.The treatment group received treatment with anti-swelling and analgesic patch in combination with Chinese medicine fine powder acupoint patches. The control group, received placebo anti-swelling and analgesic patch along with placebo Chinese medicine fine powder acupoint patches. Both groups underwent treatment at specific acupoints including bilateral Sanyinjiao, Shenque, and Ashi points. The Sanyinjiao acupoint was stimulated for 30 minutes per session, once every 7 days. The Shenque and A shi acupoints were stimulated for 6-8 hours daily for a single session. Patients in both groups were assessed before and after treatment using the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) score, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) syndrome score, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) score, Short Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36) score, inflammatory factors including monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1), interleukin 6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), T-cell subpopulations Cluster of Differentiation 3 (CD3+), Cluster of Differentiation 4 (CD4+), Cluster of Differentiation 8 (CD8+), as well as neurotransmitters 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), Substance P (SP), β-endorphin (β-EP). Changes in content were observed, and any adverse reactions were monitored. Clinical efficacy was evaluated after a 4-week treatment period. RESULTS: After 4 weeks of treatment, the VAS score, TCM syndrome score, PSQI score, levels of MCP-1, IL-6, TNF-α, CD8+, 5-HT, and SP in both groups significantly decreased compared to pre-treatment levels (P <0.05). Moreover, these parameters were lower in the treatment group than that in the control group (P<0.05). Conversely, the SF-36 scores, CD3+, CD4+, and β-EP levels were significantly higher in post-treatment compared to baseline (P<0.05). Additionally, these values were higher in the treatment group than that in the control group (P< 0.05). The total effective rate in the treatment group was 84.21%, significantly surpassing the control group's rate of 61.67% (P <0.05).
Keywords: Acupressure, PHN, Inflammatory factors, T-cell subpopulations, neurotransmitters, randomized controlled trial
Received: 12 Jun 2025; Accepted: 28 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 朱, Pu, Nie, Song, Su, Zhang, Wang and Yang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: 世壮 朱
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