Gender‐related difference in altered fractional amplitude of low‐frequency fluctuations after electroacupuncture on primary insomnia patients: A resting‐state fMRI study

摘要

Primary insomnia (PI) is defined as a sleep disorder with no definite cause or inducement. Electroacupuncture, a treatment of inserting needles into specific points on the body surface and applying electrical stimulation, has been proved effective in treating PI with minimal adverse effects. However, the influence of gender difference on the clinical treatment efficacy of electroacupuncture for PI patients remains unclear. Therefore, we designed a clinical trial to compare the clinical treatment efficacy of electroacupuncture for PI patients with different genders. The research on the mechanism of electroacupuncture suggested it could modulate the sleep and wakefulness by activating or deactivating brain regions via a needling/tactile somatosensory specific stimulus. Therefore, we also designed a resting‐state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs‐fMRI) study to detect the spontaneous brain activity of PI patients before and after the electroacupuncture treatment.