Neural therapy

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Neural therapy is a form of alternative medicine 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 and studies have found it not to be of any benefit. Neural therapy has been described as a form of holistic medicine 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 migraines. Instead of using it intramuscularly as recommended, he injected it intravenously and the migraine attack stopped immediately. He and his brother Walter subsequently used Novocaine in a similar way to treat a variety of ailments.