Browsing by Author "Ståhl, Gustav"

Pain is an unpleasant feeling bound to affect us, both humans as animals, during our lifetimes. Thousands of people are suffering from chronic pain around the world, and chronic pain in animals and ways to treat it is rapidly gaining more and more interest. The pain network is a vastly intricate one, with complex interactions between a plethora of neurons and cells. Modern science has yet to shine a light on the complete process of pain sensation. Acupuncture has been used for thousands of years in treating pain amongst other problems and is today approved by the World Health Organization as a treatment for certain types of pain among other conditions. Wide research has been carried out during the last few decades as acupuncture is gaining ground in the Western world and while evidence of its analgesic effects and some mechanisms of action (e.g. endogenous opioid-release) have been found through studies, our understanding of the response elicited by acupuncture still remains incomplete. In the current study, material was gathered in form of questionnaires, which owners to dogs treated with acupuncture filled out. We then assessed the efficacy of acupuncture as a treatment method for dogs suffering from chronic pain by analysing improvements in mobility, quality of life and pain by means of the Helsinki Chronic Pain Index (HCPI), visual analogue scales (VAS) (n=5-9) and a comparative enquiry (n=85). Although no statistically significant differences were found, results were constantly indicative of improvement, and significant differences might have been found were it not for the small numbers of cases in the HCPI-and VAS-studies. While no conclusions can be drawn from the current study, the results may be guardedly interpreted as indicative of the analgesic abilities of acupuncture in treating chronic pain in dogs.