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Background: Complementary medicine and alternative medicine have been included in the curricula of many medical schools and colleges; however, teaching methods have not been standardized. We gave lectures and practical instruction on acupuncture and moxibustion medicine to medical students during their clinical clerkship in anesthesiology. We used a questionnaire to evaluate the usefulness of small-group teaching.<br>Methods: The subjects were 93 fifth-year medical students doing clinical clerkships in anesthesiology. The clinical clerkship consists of small-group learning with 2 or 3 students per group. After a lecture and practical instruction on acupuncture and moxibustion were given, students were asked to fill out a questionnaire about their interest in and basic knowledge of acupuncture and moxibustion and whether they would like to master the technique.<br>Results: All 93 students answered the questionnaire （response rate, 100%）. After the small-group teaching, students became more interested in acupuncture and moxibustion and learned that the costs of treatment were covered by health insurance. Most students were interested mastering acupuncture and moxibustion in the future.<br>Discussion: Our results suggest that lectures and practical instruction during clinical clerkship are useful for getting medical students interested in acupuncture and moxibustion medicine.
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[Objective]Esthesia and algesthia quantitative analyzers (PainVision®) are instruments that enables us to objectively assess the pain intensity. By applying an electrical current we can measure the intensity of pre-existing pain (pain equivalent current) and the minimum electrical stimulation that can be sensed by the patient (minimum perceptible current). In this study, we used PainVision®to evaluate the effectiveness of acupuncture treatment in patients with chronic pain and compared pain-related parameters with the Visual analogue scale (VAS). <BR>[Methods]Twenty-three patients (4 males, 19 females;median age of 68) with chronic pain were studied. Pain degree was evaluated by the following equation;<BR>Pain degree = 100 x (pain equivalent current -minimum perceptible current)/minimum perceptible current. <BR>Pain degree was compared with VAS at pre-and post-acupuncture treatment.<BR>[Results]VAS, pain degree and pain equivalent current by PainVision®decreased significantly after acupuncture treatment (p < 0.0001, p < 0.0001 and p < 0.01, respectively). Minimum perceptible current did not change significantly (p > 0.05). Pain degree and VAS had relatively high correlation coefficients at pre-and post-treatment (r = 0.52, p < 0.05 and 0.47, p < 0.05;respectively). Changes in VAS and pain degree agreed in 87%of the cases.<BR>[Conclusions]PainVision®is a useful tool to assess pain intensity objectively, and parameters derived from it correlated well with VAS. In patients with chronic pain, acupuncture treatment can be evaluated by PainVision®.