External qigong therapy for chronic orofacial pain.

Dear Editor, We would like to share the results of an anecdotal pilot trial on qigong therapy for chronic pain with you. As chronic pain patients are increasingly seeking alternatives to Western medicine (Eisenberg et al. 1998), this anecdotal study was designed as an open trial to collect some pilot data without a control. The study was anecdotal without much plan due to the tight schedule of the qigong healer who was visiting the U.S. for the first time in a short notice. Subjects: 10 chronic orofacial pain patients (all white females, mean age 54 years) from a private dental practice (JJM) participated. Their duration of pain ranged from 2 years to 35 years (mean =15 years). Among the 10 patients, four of them meet criteria for Myofascial face pain (MFP), four for MFP and comorbid fibromyalgia, and 7 of them for phantom tooth pain (4 patients meet criteria for multiple disorders). All of them experienced constant or daily pain when they came to the clinic, and most had not heard of qigong before the study. Intervention: The subject was seated in a treatment room along with the Qigong healer and the translator (KC). Qigong healer administered qi emission for 5 to 10 minutes. This treatment is said to emit qi (“healing energy”) to the area of specific pain at a distance of 10-15 cm from the patient. Occasionally the patient was touched. At times the Qigong master uttered words in Chinese climaxing in a shout. The master spoke no English; the subjects knew no Chinese.