Auricular Acupuncture

Copyright © 2016 G. Litscher and P.-J. Rong. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This special issue includes six interesting manuscripts. Auric-ular acupuncture is a method which has been successfully used in various fields of medicine. Evidence-based results of this method are of special importance. This special issue highlights the historical background, the development, and anatomical and neurological aspects of auri-cular acupuncture and related methods. In detail, the accepted manuscripts deal with the following interesting aspects. D. H. Iunes et al. investigated the role of auriculotherapy with mustard seeds in the treatment of temporomandibular disorders (TMDs), anxiety, and electromyographic (EMG) activity in university students. The authors used the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) for TMDs (RDC/TMDs), and electromyography in this study of 44 college students with high levels of anxiety and TMDs. The subjects were divided into two groups: an auriculotherapy (AA) group (í µí±› = 31) and an AA sham group (í µí±› = 13). The mustard seeds were applied to the shenmen, rim, sympathetic, brain stem, and temporomandibular joint (TMJ) points in the AA group and to sham points in the external ear and wrist in the AA sham group. The treatment protocol consisted of 10 sessions (two treatments per week). The results showed that anxiety (í µí± < 0.01) was significantly reduced in the AA group. This group also showed a decrease in tender points in the mandibular posterior region (í µí± = 0.04) and in the right side of the submandibular region (í µí± = 0.02). Complaints of bilateral pain were reduced in the temporal tendon (í µí± ≤ 0.01) and in the left side of the TMJ (í µí± < 0.01). In addition, electromyographic (EMG) activity was reduced during temporal muscle contraction (í µí± = 0.03). The authors therefore concluded that auriculotherapy was effective in the treatment of students with anxiety and TMDs. A randomized controlled trial on the effect of auricular acupressure on uremic pruritus in patients receiving hemo-dialysis treatment was described by C. Yan et al. Uremic pruritus (UP) is a common symptom in patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis for end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Many nonpharmacological treatments, including acupressure, are currently used to relieve discomfort due to pruritus. The trial was designed to determine the clinical …