Neural therapy is a form of

alternative medicine Alternative medicine is any practice that aims to achieve the healing effects of medicine despite lacking biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or evidence from clinical trials. Complementary medicine (CM), complementary and alt ...

in which local anesthetic is injected into certain locations of the body in an attempt to treat chronic pain and illness. The International Medical Association of Neural Therapy has about 400 members some of whom have been practising in this field for over 30 years. Neural Therapy is both in theory and practice a

pseudoscience Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or falsifiability, unfa ...

and studies have found it not to be of any benefit.

Description and history

Neural therapy has been described as a form of

holistic medicine Alternative medicine is any practice that aims to achieve the healing effects of medicine despite lacking biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or evidence from clinical trials. Complementary medicine (CM), complementary and alte ...

for treating illness and chronic pain. According to Quackwatch, neural therapy is "a bizarre approach claimed to treat pain and disease by injecting local anesthetics into nerves, scars, glands, trigger points, and other tissues". The idea underlying the therapy is that "interference fields" (''Störfelder'') at certain sites of the body are responsible for a type of electric energy that causes illness. The fields can be disrupted by injection, allowing the body to heal. The practice originated in 1925 when Ferdinand Huneke, a German surgeon, used a newly launched pain drug that contained procaine (a local anaesthetic) on his sister who had severe intractable

migraine Migraine (, ) is a common neurological disorder characterized by recurrent headaches. Typically, the associated headache affects one side of the head, is pulsating in nature, may be moderate to severe in intensity, and could last from a few hou ...

s. Instead of using it

intramuscular Intramuscular injection, often abbreviated IM, is the injection of a substance into a muscle. In medicine, it is one of several methods for parenteral administration of medications. Intramuscular injection may be preferred because muscles have l ...

ly as recommended he injected it intravenously and the migraine attack stopped immediately. He and his brother Walter subsequently used

Novocaine Procaine is a local anesthetic drug of the amino ester group. It is most commonly used in dental procedures to numb the area around a tooth and is also used to reduce the pain of intramuscular injection of penicillin. Owing to the ubiquity of ...

in a similar way to treat a variety of ailments. In 1940 Ferdinand Huneke injected the painful shoulder of a woman who also had an osteomyelitis in her leg which at that time (before

antibiotics An antibiotic is a type of antimicrobial substance active against bacteria. It is the most important type of antibacterial agent for fighting bacterial infections, and antibiotic medications are widely used in the treatment and prevention o ...

) threatened her with

amputation Amputation is the removal of a limb by trauma, medical illness, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is carried out on indi ...

. The shoulder pain improved somewhat but the leg wound became itchy. On injecting the leg wound the shoulder pain vanished immediately – a reaction he called the "secondary phenomenon" (''Sekundenphänomen''). In segment therapy, a local anaesthetic in the form of skin quads is injected in the area of the corresponding dermatome (called ''Head zones'') of the internal organs or on vegetative ganglia. The reflective effect is to be conveyed via the vegetative nervous system in the affected segment.

Reception, effectiveness and safety

Neural therapy is practiced mostly in South America and Europe. A 2007 survey of family physicians in Germany found neural therapy to be among the most used of alternative medical techniques. Quackwatch includes neural therapy on its list of "questionable treatments". According to the

American Cancer Society The American Cancer Society (ACS) is a nationwide voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer. Established in 1913, the society is organized into six geographical regions of both medical and lay volunteers operating in more than ...

, "available scientific evidence does not support claims that neural therapy is effective in treating cancer or any other disease". Overall the risks of the treatment, such as of needle damage to organs, outweigh any benefit it may have.

Description and history

Reception, effectiveness and safety

See also

References

Further reading