Acupressure Effective in Helping to Treat Traumatic Brain Injury, Study Suggests

[Richard D]

ScienceDaily (Feb. 28, 2011) — A new University of Colorado Boulder study indicates an ancient form of complementary medicine may be effective in helping to treat people with mild traumatic brain injury, a finding that may have implications for some U.S. war veterans returning home.


"We found that the study subjects with mild traumatic brain injury who were treated with acupressure showed improved cognitive function, scoring significantly better on tests of working memory when compared to the TBI subjects in the placebo control group," said Hernandez, a professor in CU-Boulder's psychology and neuroscience department. "This suggests to us that acupressure could be an effective adjunct therapy for those suffering from TBI."

snip

The team used a standard battery of neuropsychological tests to assess the results. In one test known as the Digit Span Test, subjects were asked to repeat strings of numbers after hearing them, in both forward and backward order, to see how many digits they could recall. Those subjects receiving active acupressure treatments showed increased memory function, said Hernandez.

snip

A paper on the subject was published in the January issue of the Journal of Neurotrauma, a peer-reviewed publication on the latest advances in both clinical and laboratory investigations of traumatic brain and spinal cord injury. Co-authors on the study included CU-Boulder's Kristina McFadden, Kyle Healy, Miranda Dettman, Jesse Kaye and Associate Professor Tiffany Ito of psychology and neuroscience


http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110228130834.htm

[Celebration]

1. great news

I love it that so many health care providers are using acupuncture to help our veterans.

[Sgent]

2. Not a double blind study

the practitioner knew which patient was a control and which was receiving the treatment.

[Celebration]

3. :??

"The study was "blinded," meaning the researchers collecting data and the study participants themselves did not know who was in the experimental group or the placebo group until the end of the study."

That is the important thing. Pretty obvious that the Shin practitioners doing the acupressure HAD to know whether they were supposed to give real acupressure or not in order to properly complete the study.

If you can figure out a way a study like this could be performed without the acupressurists knowing whether they were giving real acupressure or not, be sure to let us all here know. :rofl:

[trotsky]

4. What a shock.

Stimulating the nervous system can help it recover.

This is just like the acupuncture studies - blindingly obvious. However what neither this study nor any of the acupuncture ones show is that there is any validity to "chi" or "meridians" or any of the other nonsense that's been bolted on by scammers over the years. All normal, physiological process. No magic involved.

[Celebration]

5. Obvious?

Then you should support acupuncture and acupressure paid for by insurance. And, in this case placebo acupressure did NOT work.

[trotsky]

6. I will only support that when all the shenanigans around them are dropped.

And as noted above, the "placebo" acupressure wasn't a true placebo at all - it was the same practitioner who was told to intentionally do things differently. You think it didn't work because they didn't touch the magic spots. I say there is no way to know how else they did things differently - because they have an inherent bias to justify themselves and their craft.

[Celebration]

7. sure, maybe it worked by intention

You know, the practitioner intended the results and it transferred to the patient. Therefore it worked. That must be what you mean. :)

[trotsky]

8. Let me know if you really need clarification...

or are just having some fun with equivocation.

[Celebration]

9. no equivocation at all

It either worked because acupressure is actually effective (most likely), or, if acupressure has no effect

because acupressure practitioners are able to magically, subliminally influence the patient's test results to promote their profession.

[trotsky]

10. Wrong.

That's exactly what you did, and what you are continuing to do. Let me know when you are ready for a serious discussion.

[Celebration]

11. Suit yourself