Of All the Nerve: Acupuncture and Post-Traumatic Spasmodic Syndrome
Yeah. The nervy part is coming up with a fictitious term like Post-Traumatic Spasmodic Syndrome (PTSS). In the ICD10, the insurance coding bible, it falls under the code M62.838 and includes a list of spine-related muscles, without any particular mention of trauma. “PTSS” is the proposition that trauma is the cause for at least one type of spine-related spasm.
The Neurological System is an Electrical System
The neurological system is governed by electrical impulses that travel along specified pathways. Nerves are classified as being either afferent or efferent, either sending or receiving electrical impulses that trigger physiological responses.
Post-Traumatic Spasmodic Syndrome
PTSS is characterized by spasmodic pain that is fixed, unpredictable, and paralysing. Instances of spinal trauma that don’t show anything on imaging devices is quite common. The trauma has occurred to the central nervous system (CNS), not the structure. It is analogous to getting in a dinger which shows no signs of actual damage to one’s vehicle, but where the control panels read “service engine” and the steering is “off”. Sometimes the CNS will autocorrect and the spasm will disappear. In other cases, it can spread along the spine, increase in area, frequency, and otherwise get worse.
Acupuncture and PTSS
Acupuncture proves to be a fairly enigmatic medical intervention, but when it comes to ionically charged pins effecting the nervous system, its mechanism is a shade less obscure. Methods on how to best access the nervous system vary from direct stimulation of the spastic area to protocols that accesses or “reset” the CNS.
Direct acupuncture, TENS, “dry-needling,” chiropracty, and cupping may prove effective in treating spasms. These modalities are essentially all doing the same thing by exciting the spastic site. Conversely, advanced acupuncture protocols accessing the CNS will generally NOT treat the site of distress, because the assumption is that the distress is only symptomatic of a nervous system on “TILT”, to borrow an antiquated reference， and best addressed remotely.
Take-Aways
PTSS is a species of back pain that shows nothing on standard imaging devices, because it is purely neurological in nature. When the CNS does not autocorrect or resolve through approaches that effect therapy at the spastic site, then acupuncture approaches that directly treat the CNS should be sought out. 323.936.5152