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Acupuncture treatment of schizophrenia: report on three cases

Published Online:https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.136.3.297

The authors conducted a 9-week blind controlled study of the effects of acupuncture on schizophrenic illness in three patients on an inpatient ward of a psychiatric hospital. This paitents were used as their own controls. The authors compared the effects of acupuncture, pseudo- acupuncture (random needling), and no treatment control periods. Two patients who had had florid schizophrenic symptoms responded positively to true acupuncture treatment and negatively to pseudo-acupuncture. The third patient, whose symptoms were primarily affective-depressive, showed no significant response to treatment. The authors explore the mechanisms thought to be involved in the etiology of schizophrenia, focusing on the cortical arousal hypothesis.

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