Effect of acupuncture on epilepsy

Abstract

Acupuncture has been used for suppression of epileptic seizure for more than two thousand years in Chinese medicine. Also, significant progress towards elucidating the biological basis of the acupuncture suppression has been made in the past several decades. This chapter will summarize the clinical applications and the experimental studies on acupuncture therapy for epilepsy. The therapeutic methods of acupuncture or simulated acupuncture include fine acupuncture, catgut implantation at acupoints, acupuncture plus Chinese herbs and many others. The commonly used acupoints are those along GV and CV meridians. Most reports showed that acupuncture induced remarkable efficacy although there was negative evidence in some of the studies. Optimizing acupuncture conditions including delivery ways, acupoints and stimulation parameters may further improve the efficacy of acupuncture therapy for epilepsy. In animal models, neurobiological insights into the underlying mechanism have been achieved by a variety of modern approaches including biochemical, molecular, electrophysiological, immunological techniques as well as electroencephalogram and power spectra. Accumulating data have showed that acupuncture suppress epileptic seizure through regulation of several neurotransmitters/modulators and their receptors including excitatory (e.g., glutamate) and inhibitory (e.g., gamma-aminobutyric acid) amino acids, neuropeptides such as cholecystokinin, somatostain, enkephalin, dynorphin, and nitric oxide. However, the cellular and molecular basis of acupuncture therapy for epilepsy is far away from well understanding. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.