Dr. Steven Gurgevich is a psychologist specializing in Mind-Body Medicine. He is Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Arizona, College of Medicine, and Director of The Mind-Body Clinic within Dr. Andrew Weil's Arizona Center of Integrative Medicine. Dr. Gurgevich continues his thirty-seven years of private practices at Behavioral Medicine, Ltd, and Sabino Canyon Integrative Medicine, LLC, in Tucson, Arizona. He is a Fellow, Approved Consultant, and faculty of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis. Other memberships include: the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, the American Psychological Association, state and local psychological societies. Dr. Gurgevich's most recent book is Hypnosis House Call, which includes a 2-hour DVD. He is author of the Sounds True publications: The Self-Hypnosis Home Study Course, Relax Rx, Relieve Anxiety with Medical Hypnosis, The Self-Hypnosis Diet (audio), The Self-Hypnosis Diet (book, co-author Joy Gurgevich), and Heal Yourself with Medical Hypnosis (co-author Andrew Weil, MD) and Relieve Stress with Medical Hypnosis. He is also the author of over 60 titles of medical hypnosis applications published by Tranceformation Works' Healing with Hypnosis Series, numerous textbook chapters and professional papers about medical hypnosis.

For more information visit: HealingWithHypnosis.com.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the blinding effectiveness of the Park sham acupuncture device using participants' ability to discriminate between the real and sham acupuncture needles in the (1) upper limb (TE points) compared with pure guessing and (2) lower limb (BL points) compared with pure guessing. METHODS: 20 healthy acupuncture-naïve university students and staff were recruited through convenience sampling. Participants made Yes-No judgements on whether the real or sham needle was administered to four TE acupoints on the dominant upper limb, and four acupoints along the BL meridian on the dominant lower limb. The proportion of correct judgements, P(C), for each participant was calculated to indicate the discrimination accuracy of participants in distinguishing between the real and sham needles. Separate P(C) were computed for the upper limb acupoints and lower limb acupoints. The data were also pooled to calculate a P(C) for a combination of both body regions. RESULTS: The participants' discrimination accuracy between the real and sham needles was not statistically significant from P(C)=0.5 (chance level) for the lower limb alone and combined body regions' acupoint comparisons (lower limb: t(19)=0.00, unadjusted p=1.00; combined: t(19)=1.75, unadjusted p=0.10). However, the participants' discrimination accuracy was statistically significant from P(C)=0.5 for the upper limb acupoints alone comparison (t(19)=2.36, unadjusted p=0.03). CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that the Park sham device is more likely to blind participants in differentiating between the real and sham needles in the lower limb (BL meridian) acupoints than in the upper limb (TE meridian). However, the participants' ability to differentiate between the needle types for the upper limb acupoints was significantly different from chance levels.

Acupunct Med. 2011 Jun 7. Tan CW, Sheehan P, Santos D. School of Health Sciences, Queen Margaret University Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.