Clinical application of single acupoint (HT7)

Abstract

HT7 is 7th acupoint of the heart meridian, which is located at he ulnar aspect at the end of the distal transverse crease of the rist, between the flexor carpi ulnaris and the flexor digitorum uperficialis.1 Chinese name of HT7, Shenmen, means the “gate f spirit” which is linked to the traditional treatment for disorers such as amnesia, stupor, mania, insomnia, palpitations due o fright, irritability, and chest pain.2 Recently, many animal studes have presented the therapeutic activities of single acupuncture sing only HT7 treatment for especially psychological or neuroogical disorders.3,4 Other studies also discovered the regulatory ctions of HT7 acupuncture on GABA system and serotonin system n morphine addition and depression animal models.5,6 In general, the traditional acupuncture treatment chooses the ulti-acupoints for even a symptom or single disorder.7 If the therpeutic effects of single HT7 acupuncture in animal-based studies an be proved in clinical practices, the clinical usefulness of HT7 cupuncture is highly expected. In fact, one clinical study presented he comparable efficacy of single acupuncture at EX-B 8 (Shiqizhui) omparing to multi-acupoints for dysmenorrhea.8 In order to proide its practical outline, this article extracted and built the clinical vidence for HT7acupuncture. From Pubmed database survey, 12 clinical study-derived artiles were reported for efficacy of single acupuncture at HT7 and or its related mechanisms. As shown in Fig. 1, the main target isorders included insomnia,9 psychological stress,10 emergence gitation11 and alcohol or cigarette withdrawal symptoms.12,13 hese disorders all are broadly involved in problems of neuropsyhiatric conditions that have received attention recently due to the ncreasing burden and prevalence of those disorders in modern ociety.14