Daily Caffeine Consumption Does Not Influence Acupuncture Analgesia in Healthy Individuals: A Preliminary Study

Animal studies suggest that caffeine may interfere with acupuncture analgesia. This study investigated the modulation effect of daily caffeine intake on acupuncture analgesia in 27 healthy subjects using a crossover design. We found that real acupuncture increased pain thresholds compared to sham acupuncture. Further, there was no association between caffeine intake measurements of daily caffeine use, duration of caffeine consumption, or their interaction and preacupuncture and postacupuncture pain threshold changes. Our findings suggest that daily caffeine intake may not influence acupuncture analgesia in the cohort of healthy subjects who participated in study. Accepted for publication November 12, 2018. Funding: J.K. is supported by R01 AT008563, R21 AT008707, and R61/R33 AT009310 from the National Institutes of Health/National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. Conflicts of Interest: See Disclosures at the end of the article. Supplemental digital content is available for this article. Direct URL citations appear in the printed text and are provided in the HTML and PDF versions of this article on the journal's website (http://bit.ly/KegmMq). Reprints will not be available from the authors. Address correspondence to Jian Kong, MD, MS, MPH, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Bldg 120, Room 101 C, Charlestown, MA 02129. Address e-mail to jkong2@mgh.harvard.edu. © 2018 International Anesthesia Research Society

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