Effectiveness of Low Frequency In Situ Needle Acupuncture Combined with Body Sonic Pad Therapy

Abstract

A new therapy was recently developed by combining low frequency in situ needle acupuncture with Body Sonic Pad therapy. With this therapy, the patient lies on a bed fitted with Body Sonic Pads which vibrate slightly, in synchrony with the low-pitched sounds of the music which is played during the therapy. The patient listens to music and can feel the music-synchronized vibration of the pads while receiving in situ needle acupuncture. We recently assessed the effectiveness of this combined therapy.
The subjects were 30 patients with chronic shoulder stiffness who visited our department of anesthesiology. These patients received each of the following 5 treatments at different times in random order: (1) Method M (listening to music without any other therapy), (2) Method B (Body Sonic Pad therapy without listening to music), (3) Method MB (Body Sonic Pad therapy while listening to music), (4) Method L (conventional continuous low-frequency (3Hz) in situ needle acupuncture), and (5) Method MBL (continuous low-frequency (3Hz) in situ needle acupuncture combined with Body Sonic Pad therapy while listening to music). The direct therapeutic effect and the degree of comfort during treatment were compared among these five methods. The acupuncture therapy for shoulder stiffness consisted of stimulating the standard points in the shoulder and neck region with 30mm acupuncture needles (No. 20). The electrical stimulation lasted for 20 minutes. The music used for Body Sonic Pad therapy was primarily classical music selected according to the desire of the patients. The effectiveness was rated by the patients on a 4-point scale (markedly effective, effective, slightly effective and ineffective). Effective or markedly effective cases were regarded as responding to the therapy. The level of comfort during treatment was rated on an 11-point scale.
The number of patients who responded to the therapy was 7 (23%) for Method M, 6 (20%) for Method B, 10 (34%) for Method MB, 18 (60%) for Method L and 23 (77%) in Method MBL. The response rate was significantly higher for Method MBL when compared to Method M or MB. The mean level of comfort during treatment (rated on a visual analog scale; 0=most uncomfortable; 10=most comfortable) was 6.3±2.1 for Method M, 6.0±2.1 for Method B, 7.0±1.6 for Method MB, 7.2±1.9 for Method L and 8.3±1.6 for Method MBL. Thus, low frequency in situ needle acupuncture combined with Body sonic Pad therapy was slightly superior to the other therapies.