Category: Acupuncture Research & Miscellaneous Conditions

A major national survey of UK acupuncture practitioners, has found that there are an estimated four million treatments annually, which contribute substantially to healthcare in this country.

A team of UK authors contacted 800 practitioners representing a random cross-section of the four major national professional bodies. Of the 330 who responded, 29% were doctors, 29% physiotherapists, 15% nurses and 27% independent professional acupuncturists. The majority (68%) worked in independent settings, whilst the remaining 42% were based in the NHS. Patients were found to seek treatment most commonly for lower back, neck , shoulder and knee pain, aswell as for headaches and migraine. Treatments for infertility by independent acupuncturists, were found to have increased fivefold in the last ten years.

The authors conclude that the primary complaints for which patients are seeking treatment, reflect an expanding evidence base for these conditions, and this should inform future health policy and practice.

(Acupuncture in Practice: Mapping the Providers, the Patients and the Settings in a National Cross-Sectional Survey. BMJ Open, January 2012.)

Researchers at the University of Oslo’s Department of Dentistry have concluded that acupuncture is an effective adjunctive treatment for post-operative nausea and vomiting in children after surgery to remove adenoids or tonsils.

In a randomised controlled trial, 154 children were selected to receive either acupuncture during anaesthesia plus acupressure wristbands for the following 24 hours alongside standard drug treatment, or they received standard drug treatment alone. The acupuncture group experienced significantly less retching and vomiting (46.8%) compared with the control group (66.2%).

(Perioperative Acupuncture and Postoperative Acupressure can prevent Postoperative Vomiting following Paediatric Tonsillectomy or Adenoidectomy: A Pragmatic Randomised Controlled Trial. Acupuncture in Medicine, Dec 2010. Epub ahead of print.)

Researchers in Italy have found that acupuncture prevents recurrence of arrhythmias in patients who have undergone cardioversion treatment (electrical stimulation of the heart back into regular rhythm) for persistent atrial fibrillation.

Eighty patients were enrolled in the study: 26 were already on a standard anti-arrhythmic drug, whilst the remaining 54 were randomly allocated to receive acupuncture, sham acupuncture, or neither the drug nor acupuncture. The acupuncture group received ten weekly treatments. During a one year follow-up period, arrhythmia recurrence rates were 27% in the drug group and 35% in the acupuncture group. However, in the sham acupuncture group, recurrence was 69%, and in the no-treatment group, it was 54%. Acupuncture was thus similar in benefit to standard drug treatment.

(Efficacy of Acupuncture in Preventing Atrial Fibrillation Recurrences After Electrical Cardioversion. Journal of Cardiovasc Electrophysiol. Aug 2010. Epub ahead of print.)

As a follow-on from the research reported here on 11 March 2009, Swedish scientists have demonstrated in a randomised controlled trial, that minimal acupuncture can reduce the intensity and duration of crying in infants with colic.

Ninety otherwise-healthy infants, aged two to eight weeks old, and with infantile colic, were assigned to receive either six acupuncture treatments over three weeks, or no acupuncture. Parents were blinded as to the allocation of their children. The results showed that infants who had acupuncture, recovered from colic more quickly, and exhibited less fussing and crying over the treatment period.

(Acupuncture Reduces Crying in Infants with Infantile Colic: A Randomised, Controlled Blind Clinical Study. Acupuncture in Medicine, Dec 2010.)

Acupuncture can assist with speech recovery after stroke, and may be associated with increased activity in the damaged speech areas of the brain.

Seven patients with speech loss following a stroke, were treated with acupuncture three times per week for eight weeks. Patients classified as well-recovered, showed significant improvement in speech scores after receiving acupuncture. Functional MRI scans also showed significant correlation between changes in speech scores, and blood oxygen dependent signals in part of the brain associated with speech interpretation and understanding.

(An fMRI Study showing the effect of Acupuncture in Chronic Stage Stroke Patients with Aphasia. Journal of Acupuncture & Meridian Studies, March 2010.)