Auriculotherapy

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Auriculotherapy - not to be confused with auricular therapy using needles (ear acupuncture) - is a form of alternative medicine based on the idea that the ear is a microsystem, meaning that the entire body is represented on the auricle (or auricula, or pinna - the outer portion of the ear) in a similar fashion to reflexology (zone therapy) and iridology (iridodiagnosis), and that the entire body can be treated by stimulation of the surface of the ear exclusively.

1 History
2 Compared to acupuncture
3 Maps
4 Studies
5 Bibliography
6 External links

[edit] History

In the 1950s, Dr. Paul Nogier noticed that a local lay practitioner in Lyon, France was treating sciatica by cauterizing an area of the ear, which prompted him to investigate ear acupuncture and subsequently develop auriculotherapy as a treatment for chronic pain (and later, for substance abuse) [1]. However, auriculotherapy has never been shown to be an effective treatment for sciatica or any other form of chronic pain (or to have any beneficial effect above that of a placebo for substance abuse).

[edit] Compared to acupuncture

auriculotherapy considers the ear to be a localized reflex system connected to the central nervous system (whereas ear acupuncture focuses on the acupuncture meridians) [2]

auriculotherapy uses neither needles nor fixed stimulation points [3] [4]

Treatment (stimulation of the auricle) is usually by means of an electrical probe, or sometimes photobiomodulation (laser therapy).

[edit] Maps

Many widely differing auriculotherapy maps exist (examples: [5] [6]). Nogier first proposed a "somatotopic" map with the body appearing on the ear as an inverted fetus, with the head towards the lower lobule, the feet at the uppermost portion of the auricle, and the body in between; he subsequently produced three further "phase" diagrams providing additional and alternative sets of stimulation locations, in which the part or parts of the ear considered to represent a specific organ varies significantly depending on the "phase" of the ailment [7]. Some French system practitioners now use a more distorted representation of the body in the ear, more similar to the somatotopic representation on the cerebal cortex <ref>Rubach, Axel (2001). Principles of Ear Acupuncture. Thieme.</ref>. Chinese system diagrams place more emphasis on metaphorical names rather than anatomical locations.

[edit] Studies

1980: A double blind study by Dr. Terry Olson published in the Journal Pain found a 75.2 percent correlation between standard medical diagnosis and diagnosis from solely auricular examination. The study concluded that "these results thus support the hypothesis that there is a somatotopoic organization of the body represented upon the human auricle" [8]

1984: A controlled crossover study involving 36 patients suffering from chronic pain found that "...auriculotherapy is not an effective therapeutic procedure for chronic pain" [9]

1990: A study published in the Journal of the South African Veterinary Association involved auriculotherapy treatment of 30 canine subjects with thoracolumbar intervertebral disc disease. Complete recovery occurred in 50 percent of the subjects, and some improvement occurred in an additional 23 percent. Twelve of the recovered dogs were monitored for 26 weeks after the conclusion of treatment, and four of the twelve relapsed within that time. [10]

1999: A study in the Journal Acupuncture in Medicine "...found no evidence to support the concept that the body is represented on the ear"

2006: A study published in the Oxford Journal of Human Reproduction involved 94 subjects and found that "[auriculotherapy] significantly reduces pain intensity and analgesic consumption [required for pain relief]... during oocyte aspiration in IVF treatment" and is additionally correlated with significantly reduced post-operative pain [11]