Acupuncture was frequently used for alternative treatments in Parkinson’s disease because of its safety, but there was an argument whether acupuncture improves motor symptoms or not. Besides, few electrophysiological studies were designed for acupuncture combined with Parkinson’s disease
Using the technique of motor-relative electroencephalographic recording and paired transcranial pulse magnetic stimulation, we measured the motor-related cortical potentials (MRCP) and the excitability of corticocortical inhibitory circuits to investigate effects of scalp acupuncture from 5 normal controls and 6 patients with Parkinson’s disease and to compare the results with medication on and off in other 6 patients.
Although patients didn’t take any short-term benefit in motor symptoms through acupuncture, there were electrophysical effects among patients and normal controls. In controls, enhanced corticocortical inhibition possibly developed at longer interstimulus intervals, and there was a predominant increase in later part of motor-related cortical potentials on the central part and right-side near vertex, but was not significant in early potentials. In patients, significant inhibition was produced by acupuncture at the interstimulus interval longer than 5 m sec in cortico-cortical inhibition.
