[Acupuncture-moxibustion analgesia: problems behind the hotspot]

Acupuncture-moxibustion analgesia is the field of acupuncture and moxibustion with the most extensive clinical application and the richest basic research achievements, which has helped the promotion and use of acupuncture medicine in 196 countries and regions around the world. However, throughout the current acupuncture analgesia field, whether it is clinical application or basic research, there are many problems behind the hotspots. The 11^th edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) changed the acupuncture analgesia from relieving symptoms to treating various diseases, which provided historical opportunities for the development of acupuncture analgesia, but also put forward new challenges. The field of acupuncture analgesia needs to make joint efforts in original theory, clinical research and basic research to promote the progress of subject of acupuncture and moxibustion. Acupuncture analgesia needs to clarify the understanding of "pain" in the basic theory of traditional Chinese medicine, and takes the "activating qi to relieve pain" as a new starting point to put forward a new original theory to guide clinical and basic research. Clinically, the indications of acupuncture analgesia need to be further expanded, the application rules of different acupuncture and moxibustion therapies need to be clarified, the clinical data of acupuncture analgesia should be more realistic. Basic research should serve to solve the clinical problems of acupuncture analgesia. While exploring the analgesic mechanism of acupuncture, the research on the intervention mechanism of primary diseases cannot be ignored. The exploration of central and peripheral mechanisms of acupuncture analgesia should be promoted simultaneously. All teams should strengthen cooperation to form a good evidence chain of acupuncture analgesia. With the joint efforts of all acupuncture-moxibustion practitioners, the scope of application of acupuncture analgesia will be wider, the curative effect will be better, the regularity of action will be clearer, the mechanism of action will be clearer, and it will continue to reach new peaks.