我国针刺麻醉的大量临床实践已经证明

针麻对某些手术可作为常规麻醉手段之一

也有大量实验研究说明针刺的镇痛、调整作用的机理。但有关针麻原理的人体实验研究为数较少。在国外

多数人看到针刺确有镇痛作用

并认为

有中枢内啡素等物质参与。但有少数人认为针刺麻醉主要是催眠麻醉的一种

或主要是心理因素的作用。也有用信号检测论方法进行研究

或则证明针刺确有镇痛作用

或则认为针刺镇痛主要只是心理性的报痛标准的提高。我国也有工作用此方法分析针刺镇痛效应

观察到针刺能降低痛分辨力

和佯针有明显的区别。在肺切除的临床实践中看到手捻针刺三Experiments were made in 21 healthy volunteers.The sensory decision theory(SDT)method.was used.The results were as follows:1.Manual acupuncture of a single point at “Sanyangluo”resulted in a significant analgesic effectexpressed in the marked decrease of the occurrence of pain and severe pain in the pain assessment ses-sion.2.The analgesic effect of acupuncture was accompanied by an elevation of the blood level of endor-phins and an inhibition of histamine response against painful stimuli.3.After acupuncture

the sensory discrimination(d')was decreased significantly

while the respo-nse bias(Cx)was significantly increased

but the d'of controls was also decreased.4.The analgasic effect and any of the above mentioned indices weare not correlated with the degreeof the suggestibility of the subjects.The suggestion factor thus did not seem to be an important factorunderlying acupuncture analgesia.