Research Article
The Anti-Inflammatory Actions of Auricular Point Acupressure for Chronic Low Back Pain
Table 3
Mean changes from pre- to post-APA treatment of biomarkers and clinical outcomes.
| | Cytokine change after treatment | Real APA group | Sham APA group | Difference | value | Effect size | | Mean (SD) | Mean (SD) | Mean (SD) |
| | Proinflammatory cytokines | | | | | | | IL-1 | −1.33 (5.00) | −0.39 (2.09) | −0.94 (3.88) | 0.35 | −0.24 | | IL-2 | −1.24 (6.51) | −0.39 (5.34) | −0.85 (5.98) | 0.58 | −0.14 | | IL-6 | −2.18 (9.68) | −1.28 (16.19) | −0.90 (13.58) | 0.80 | −0.07 | | TNF- | 2.55 (24.39) | −5.61 (22.96) | 8.16 (23.71) | 0.20 | 0.34 | | Anti-inflammatory cytokines | | | | | | | IL-4 | 0.40 (2.46) | −0.93 (2.52) | 1.33 (2.49) | 0.05 | 0.53 | | IL-10 | −2.28 (7.22) | −1.38 (7.07) | −0.90 (7.15) | 0.63 | −0.13 | | Neuropeptides | | | | | | | CGRP | −6.19 (17.91) | 2.69 (8.41) | −8.87 (14.19) | 0.04 | −0.63 | | -endorphin | −8.67 (21.57) | −7.88 (24.49) | −0.79 (12.07) | 0.90 | −0.03 | | Clinical outcomes | | | | | | | Pain | −3.66 (2.78) | −0.79 (2.46) | −2.86 (2.63) | <0.01 | −1.09 | | Physical function | −2.86 (3.97) | −0.43 (4.52) | −0.43 (3.99) | 0.06 | −0.11 |
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Note. SD: standard deviation; APA: auricular point acupressure; CGRP: calcitonin gene-related peptide.
The effect size is calculated from Cohen’s .
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