User:Maansak/Acupuncture

Legend:

main prose: normal text

copyrighted prose

my own prose

Lead
Acupuncture is most often used to attempt pain relief, though acupuncturists say that it can also be used for a wide range of other conditions, such as substance abuse and mental health.

Article body
Clinical practice

Related practices:


 * Auriculotherapy, commonly known as ear acupuncture, auricular acupuncture, or auriculoacupuncture, is considered to date back to ancient China. It involves inserting needles to stimulate points on the outer ear.The modern approach was developed in France during the early 1950s, where it was discovered that parts of the body can be mapped in specific points of the ear. There is now a standard 3 to 5 point ear acupuncture protocol established by the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association (NADA). There is no scientific evidence that it can cure disease; the evidence of effectiveness is negligible.  In 2016, a review article published by the National Health Institute noted that research on auriculotherapy demonstrates mixed results. Yet overall, it concludes that auriculotherapy is an effective form of behavioral health treatment and recovery, and, being cost effective, it is valuable also for underserved communities. Common patient feelings after treatment include calmness and improved sleep. At the same time, it notes that while auriculotherapy provides symptom relief, it is not adequate treatment on its own.  

Specific conditions

Pain and nausea associated with cancer and cancer treatment
A 2015 Cochrane review found that there is insufficient evidence to determine whether acupuncture is an effective treatment for cancer pain in adults. A 2014 systematic review published in the Chinese Journal of Integrative Medicine found that acupuncture may be effective as an adjunctive treatment to palliative care for cancer patients. A 2013 overview of reviews published in the Journal of Multinational Association for Supportive Care in Cancer found evidence that acupuncture could be beneficial for people with cancer-related symptoms, but also identified few rigorous trials and high heterogeneity between trials. A 2012 systematic review of randomized clinical trials published in the same journal found that the number and quality of RCTs for using acupuncture in the treatment of cancer pain was too low to draw definite conclusions.

A 2014 systematic review reached inconclusive results with regard to the effectiveness of acupuncture for treating cancer-related fatigue. A 2013 systematic review found that acupuncture is an acceptable adjunctive treatment for chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, but that further research with a low risk of bias is needed. A 2013 systematic review found that the quantity and quality of available RCTs for analysis were too low to draw valid conclusions for the effectiveness of acupuncture for cancer-related fatigue.

A peer reviewed article published by the National Institute of Health in 2022 examined the efficacy of complementary and alternative medicines -- such as meditation, yoga, acupuncture, and herbal acupuncture -- for dealing with pain associated with cancer treatment. The results of the study show that all users benefited from these methods as it improved their emotional well being and relieved pain. It is also noted that more than 70% of patients wished their doctors suggested such alternatives as an option to manage their symptoms  .

Substance abuse

Acupuncture has been shown to help in certain substance addiction situations. In 2008, one research team conducted an experiment on a group of individuals who were both smokers and unhoused. These individuals received acupuncture; some received the 3-5 point ear protocol, and others did not. Both groups had a significant drop in smoking but there was no significant difference between the two groups; the study concluded that acupuncture, including non-specific acupuncture, can help individuals to quit smoking. In 1999, another study focused on 72 individuals with alcoholism and treated them using ear acupuncture. This study specifically explored the differences in addiction in males versus females. They found that only females felt a reduction of anxiety, but neither group experienced a lessening in their alcohol addiction. This shows that the evidence for acupuncture's effects on alcoholism is not well established yet but for smoking, there is some evidence that it can help with smoking addiction.

The research on acupuncture's effectivity in drug abuse is more clearly positive. Acupuncture has been substituted for those drugs in pain and anxiety management, and can be used in conjunction with conventional medications to reduce drug dosing, so that patients will have fewer side-effects and minimized potential for drug addiction A 2016 study from PubMed established with morphine dependent rats that acupuncture helps alleviate addiction to opioids.  

Major Depression

There is evidence that major depression symptoms are alleviated with consistent acupuncture treatment. A 2008 review article discusses an experiment that used three groups: one with acupuncture treatment specific to depression, acupuncture treatment nonspecific to depression, and a control group that did not receive acupuncture. The results show that those in the group receiving depression-specific acupuncture treatments had a significant improvement in mental health, much more than those receiving the placebo-like nonspecific acupuncture treatments. They found that acupuncture can provide significant symptoms relief in depression, similar to those of psychotherapy or pharmacotherapy.

Modern era

In 1971, New York Times reporter James Reston published an article on his acupuncture experiences in China, which led to more investigation of and support for acupuncture. The US President Richard Nixon visited China in 1972. During one part of the visit, the delegation was shown a patient undergoing major surgery while fully awake, ostensibly receiving acupuncture rather than anesthesia. Later it was found that the patients selected for the surgery had both a high pain tolerance and received heavy indoctrination before the operation; these demonstration cases were also frequently receiving morphine surreptitiously through an intravenous drip that observers were told contained only fluids and nutrients. One patient receiving open heart surgery while awake was ultimately found to have received a combination of three powerful sedatives as well as large injections of a local anesthetic into the wound. After the National Institute of Health expressed support for acupuncture for a limited number of conditions, adoption in the US grew further. In 1972 the first legal acupuncture center in the US was established in Washington DC and in 1973 the American Internal Revenue Service allowed acupuncture to be deducted as a medical expense.

In 1980, Dr. Tolbert Small (following a 1972 visit to China), established an acupuncture clinic for under-resourced communities in Berkeley and another acupuncture clinic, still operating in Oakland Over the past five decades, he estimates he has treated thousands of underserved patients in the San Francisco Bay Area with acupuncture in his general practice.

In 2006, a BBC documentary Alternative Medicine filmed a patient undergoing open heart surgery allegedly under acupuncture-induced anesthesia. It was later revealed that the patient had been given a cocktail of anesthetics.

In 2010, UNESCO inscribed "acupuncture and moxibustion of traditional Chinese medicine" on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List following China's nomination.

In 2016, California's Medi-Cal decided to reimburse patients for use of acupuncture to treat lowerback pain; in 2020, the federal Medicare program followed suit *cite*.

Regulation[edit]
Main article: Regulation of acupuncture

There are various government and trade association regulatory bodies for acupuncture in the United Kingdom, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Canada, and in European countries and elsewhere. of The World Health Organization recommends that before being licensed or certified, an acupuncturist receive 200 hours of specialized training if they are a physician and 2,500 hours for non-physicians; many governments have adopted similar standards.

In the United States, the Accreditation Commission of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine sets regulations and provides accreditation to acupuncturists. Federal and state-run healthcare programs also make decisions about what acupuncture treatment is covered by government health insurance. In 2016, California's health care program, Medi-Cal, decided to reimburse acupuncture when used for persistent chronic lower back pain and when a physician or certified acupuncturist covered by the Medi-Cal program provides the service. Following suit, and since 2020, the federal Medicare covers acupuncture for chronic lower back pain. Both state and federal government view acupuncture as preferable to the use (and misuse) of opioids. Medicare and Medi-Cal do not cover for other issues due to lack of substantial evidence that acupuncture helps treat other health issues like substance abuse or mental health.

In the United States, most acupuncture use is out-of-pocket, by individuals with private insurance plans that do not cover acupuncture. Acupuncture has been on an upward trend in usage since 2010. A research letter published in 2022 by the JAMA Medical journal states that only one-third of private insurance plans cover acupuncture, suggesting that most patients pay for acupuncture entirely out of pocket. When insurers covered acupuncture, cost sharing was higher than other non pharmacological interventions, and insurers tended to cover few indications and clinician types.