Am J Psychiatry 1979; 136:297-302
Copyright © 1979 by American Psychiatric Association
Acupuncture treatment of schizophrenia: report on three cases
J Kane and WJ Di Scipio
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.
