The Impact Of Electro-acupuncture On The Impulsive Behavior And The Change Of Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) In Patients With Internet Addiction Disorder

Objective:This research was aimed to discuss the impact of acupuncture treatment on the impulsive behavior of Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) sufferers, with the detection of magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), the assessment of Young’s Internet Addiction Test (IAT), Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS-11) and Go/No-go task, hopefully that this research could provide basis for the further study as well as the establishment of comprehensive assessment and treatment protocol of IAD.Methods:We divided32subjects, who met the IAD inclusion criteria, randomly into2groups, with16subjects in each group. Among them, two subjects couldn’t continue the trial for personal reasons, and one was excluded for intracranial cyst, so totally had accomplished29subjects, of which15in acupuncture treatment group and14in psychology treatment group. We detected or assessed their impulsive metal states, response inhibition as well as the biochemical metabolism of certain brain regions with IAT, BIS-11, Go/No-go task and MRS respectively. In the mean time, there were16volunteers recruited as the normal control group, who had also been detected or assessed those indexes above. All the data had been compared within or among the groups.Results and Conclusion: 1. IAT scores showed that both acupuncture and psychological treatments were able to significantly alleviate IAD symptoms, dysthymia and psychological dependence(P<0.05), but acupuncture was significantly better than psychological treatments (P<0.05)2. The results of BIS-11also revealed that both of the two treatments significantly reduced impulsivity (P<0.05), but compared with psychological treatment, acupuncture improved the dimensions of impulsivity in a wider range.3.Go/No-go task showed that, firstly, in the normal control group, after instant needling, there were significant difference both in accuracy(ACC) and reaction time(RT)(P<0.05), which meant that instant needling could improve response inhibition. Secondly, in both experimental groups, there were no significant difference in the change of ACC and RT (P>0.05) after instant needling before long-term treatment, but after long-term treatment, candidates showed more sensitive to the instant needling, which resulted in that RT significantly reduced (P<0.05). The results revealed that the function of the brain regions which closely related to response inhibition and impulsivity were improved, so that the IAD sufferers were more sensitive in the reaction of instant needling after long-term treatments.4.The rate of NAA/Cr had been improved significantly than receiving the treatment before in acupuncture group (P<0.05), which indicated that acupuncture had more impact on the biochemical metabolism of impulsivity and response inhibition related brain regions.