Does Acupuncture Needling Induce Analgesic Effects Comparable to Diffuse Noxious Inhibitory Controls?

Figure 1

Time line of the experiment. PPDT: pressure pain detection threshold, NRS: numeric rating scale. *Acupuncture, nonpenetrating sham acupuncture (NPSA), and DNIC test were given in randomized order. The duration of acupuncture and NPSA was 5 minutes, and the maximal duration of the DNIC test was 2 minutes. ^§The subjects were asked to rate the pain intensity during the intervention on a 0–10 NRS (0 = no pain, 10 = worst pain imaginable).