Page 24 - NAMAH Oct 2015
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Namah Vol. 23, Issue 3, 15th October 2015
their fifties, an age when vulnerable to effects through endorphins, it could be used
anxiety and depression and the occasional in a psychiatric set-up where we had
case with painful diabetic sensorimotor instances of psychogenic pain syndromes.
polyneuropathy who drop into the psy- Moreover, acupuncturists were already
chiatric clinic when there would be meagre treating a large number of subjects having
relief with the usual interventions. lower back pain, a condition that does not
always satisfactorily respond to drugs or
This led me to wonder if there would really physiotherapy. Besides, three decades back,
be a situation where a cause for pain existed acupuncture was being used as an adjunct
but no pain was felt even if the subject was to treat the body aches and insomnia of
not suffering from any condition like diabetic heroin withdrawal; it was a time when brown
neuropathy which made the perception of sugar abuse had attained nearly epidemic
pain difficult. It was not difficult to find, our proportions among the youth in Calcutta.
culture abounds with fairs and ‘melas’ where
it is usual practice for otherwise healthy We set up a separate acupuncture section in
aspirants to jump on a bed of thorns and nails our psychiatric clinic and we dealt broadly
in states of trance where one neither feels any with two types of pain. Cases of acute
pain nor suffers any bleeding. These trance psychogenic pain like chest pain, acute
states persisting for centuries provide an migraine and tension headaches, atypical
important field for consciousness research. facial pain and atypical genital pain were
It is interesting that once a subject came out simultaneously put on acupuncture sessions
of the trance state, which anyway was short- along with psychotropic drugs, usually anti-
lived, one got back the pain and ability to depressants. Initially, we had started with
bleed as before. the older anti-depressants, tricyclics and
tetracyclics, we later shifted to the new
It is believed that the absence of pain and generation anti-depressants, SSRIs and
bleeding during trance states is mediated by SNRIs without much difference in efficacy.
endorphins. Endorphins are endogenous We had remarkable results. Chronic pain
opioids released in the body during stress syndromes including those associated with
and react with the brain’s opiate receptors to depression, somatisation disorder and
reduce the sensation of pain. If the stress is variants of arthritis were first given anti-
more, then high levels of endorphins are depressants and later put on concomitant
released, a reason why long-distance runners acupuncture therapy. We were careful not
start feeling exceptionally happy (the runner’s to give a false impression that we had
‘high’) after they have run for a while. Could magical cures, especially as such subjects
we not simulate the runner’s high in pain- had had multiple consultations before being
relief? recommended for psychiatric consultation.
(We also administered acupuncture to other
Acupuncture as an adjunct conditions where pain was not necessarily
present, in insomnia, generalised anxiety,
I postulated that as there was some academic essential tremor, Parkinsonism, erectile
belief that acupuncture exerted its beneficial dysfunction, psychogenic urinary incont-
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