Browsing by Subject "5-hydrotryptophan"

Chronic pain is challenging to treat when the adverse effects of the analgesic agents become significant when used for a long period of time. Acupuncture has been shown to have analgesic effect without adverse effects. The modulatory effect of acupuncture on pain and what substances are involved in the modulation is, however, not completely understood. In this study 19 dogs with chronic pain caused by osteoarthritis in the hip joint was randomly divided into two groups: acupuncture group (AG) and sham group (SG). The AG got three acupuncture treatments with an interval of about one week and the SG got no treatment, they just rested on the floor in the treatment room. The owners and the researchers did not know into which group each dog was divided. Blood samples was taken from each dog in the beginning and at the end of the study to analyse the long-term effect (LT) and before and after one treatment to analyse the short-term effect (ST). From the blood samples the plasma concentration of serotonin (ST), prolactin (LT) and cortisol (ST and LT) were analysed and the concentrations between the groups and between the samples before and after were compared. The result of the study was that there was no statistically significant difference neither between the two groups nor between the before and after samples for neither serotonin, prolactin nor cortisol. There was, however, a strong trend toward significance in the increased concentration of LT cortisol between baseline and end of treatment in the AG (p=0.051), and a decrease of concentration of ST cortisol in both groups (p=0.051 for the AG and p=0.063 for the SG). More research, taking into consideration the limitations of this study, should be done.