Acupuncture before delivery: effect on pain perception and the need for analgesics

Pain experience and the amount of analgesics needed during labor were studied in 32 primiparous women who had received repeated treatment with acupuncture (AP) during the month prior to term and in 16 nontreated primiparous women. The women's psychological profiles were evaluated by a psychiatric interview at week 38 of pregnancy. Treatment with AP did not reduce the need for analgesics in labor. During labor, all women experienced successively rising pain irrespective of whether or not they had been treated with AP prior to labor or delivered under local anesthesia. Experience of pain was not reduced in subjective assessments in women treated with AP. There was a strong correlation between assessments of pain made during labor and 6 months after delivery. In the group that did not receive AP, cerebrospinal fluid dynorphin A was significantly lower in parturients who chose epidural anesthesia.