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 ‘Acupuncture Research Focused on Science Advances: Mechanism of Acupuncture Bidirectional Treatment for Drug Addiction’ on the 19th
At the Academy on this day, Professor Yang Jae-ha from 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 control bidirectional mechanism of acupuncture from the perspective of basic research Dr. Kyung Hee Dong-Ju from Oriental Medicine Clinic presented the effect of two-way modulation of acupuncture, focusing on clinical cases.
On this day, Professor Yang Jae-ha presented the research results that can control alcohol and drug addiction through acupuncture, and emphasized that acupuncture, a non-pharmacological treatment, will play a major role in treating drug addiction.
Professor Yang confirmed that stimulation of ‘Shinminhyeol’ with saliva has a two-way effect in controlling the lack of dopamine secretion and a sensitization response in the midbrain dopaminergic peripheral 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 midbrain limbic dopaminergic nervous system, the compensatory neural circuit of the brain, is simultaneously activated and sensitized .
Professor Yang said, “Combining previous studies, it was concluded that saliva activates endorphins with less functional activity to increase dopamine secretion, and as dopamine secretion increases, it was concluded that alcohol-induced anxiety symptoms are reduced.” Under the Hypothesis that ‘beta endorphins’ are involved in the mechanism by which acupuncture treatment controls alcohol and drug addiction, we intend to continue research to clarify the therapeutic mechanism for this.”
In addition, Dr. Woo Hyun-soo presented acupuncture research trends related to addiction through a 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 ‘acupuncture addiction’ was searched on Pubmed.
In addition, last year’s ‘Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews’ showed that acupuncture induces drug craving by normalizing the function of the reward circuit by engaging both sides of the incentive sensitization theory and the opponent motivational process theory, which are theories that’ n seem contradictory. the role of the mesolimbic dopamine pathway He explained that the results show that the phenomenon has been suppressed.
Director Woo said, “Regarding the bidirectional therapeutic effect of acupuncture, oriental doctors naturally recognize this mechanism and apply it in clinical practice. “You may 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 blood circulation 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 foundation for connecting to standardization furnaces,” he said .
In particular, Director Woo said, “Although most acupuncture research has focused on ‘pain’, patients with various disease groups also visit the primary medical center, oriental clinic, in the future. “In this regard, this study is to investigate the effects acupuncture can apply on addiction to various diseases such as anxiety, insomnia, and neurosis as well as addiction in front-line oriental medical institutions in the future. I think it is a more meaningful study as it has given an opportunity,” he said.
Meanwhile, the 4th lecture of the ‘Online Academic Academy with Basic Researchers and Clinical Oriental Doctors’ is to provide opportunities for the Meridian and Acupuncture Society to introduce and exchange not only researchers interested in acupuncture, but also clinicians and students oriental medicine concerned with oriental medicine. research results are coming It will be held on November 14th under the theme ‘Together for basic research and clinical research’.
