How Effective is Acupuncture?

Acupuncture has been used to treat a variety of conditions for over 2000 years, and researchers are trying to determine how effective it really is. In 2003, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a report that detailed acupuncture’s effectiveness in treating a long list of disease conditions. The report findings were based on data taken from 255 trials conducted from 1998 to 1999.1 The list generated by the WHO is categorized into 4 groups based on how effective acupuncture is for treating specific conditions. The following was taken directly from the 2003 WHO study.

Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which acupuncture has been proved — through controlled trials — to be an effective treatment:

1.      Adverse reactions to radiation and/or chemotherapy

2.      Allergic rhinitis, hay fever

3.      Biliary colic

4.      Depression

5.      Dysentery

6.      Dysmenorrhea

7.      Epigastric pain, peptic ulcer

8.      Facial pain

9.      Headache

10.   Hypertension, essential

11.   Hypotension, primary

12.   Induction of labor

13.   Knee pain

14.   Leukopenia

15.   Low back pain

16.   Malposition of fetus

17.   Morning sickness

18.   Nausea and vomiting

19.   Neck pain

20.   Pain in dentistry

21.   Frozen shoulder

22.   Postoperative pain

23.   Renal colic

24.   Rheumatoid arthritis

25.   Sciatica

26.   Sprain

27.   Stroke

28.   Tennis elbow

Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which the therapeutic effect of acupuncture has been shown but for which further proof is needed:

1.      Abdominal pain

2.      Acne

3.      Alcohol dependence and detox

4.      Bell’s palsy

5.      Bronchial asthma

6.      Cancer pain

7.      Cardiac neurosis

8.      Gallbladder inflammation

9.      Gallstones ­­­­­

10.   Competition stress syndrome

11.   Craniocerebral injury

12.   Diabetes mellitus

13.   Earache

14.   Epidemic hemorrhagic fever

15.   Epistaxis

16.   Eye pain

17.   Female infertility

18.   Facial spasm

19.   Female urethral syndrome

20.   Fibromyalgia and fasciitis

21.   Gastrokinetic disturbance

22.   Gouty arthritis

23.   Hepatitis B virus carrier status

24.   Herpes zoster

25.   Hyperlipidemia

26.   Hypo-ovarianism

27.   Insomnia

28.   Labor pain

29.   Lactation, deficiency

30.   Male sexual dysfunction, non-organic

31.   Meniere disease

32.   Neuralgia, post-herpetic

33.   Neurodermatitis

34.   Obesity

35.   Opium, cocaine and heroin dependence

36.   Osteoarthritis

37.   Pain due to endoscopic examination

38.   Pain in thromboangiitis obliterans

39.   Polycystic ovary syndrome

40.   Postextubation in children

41.   Postoperative convalescence

42.   Premenstrual syndrome

43.   Prostatitis, chronic

44.   Pruritus

45.   Radicular and pseudoradicular pain syndrome

46.   Raynaud syndrome, primary

47.   Recurrent lower urinary-tract infection

48.   Reflex sympathetic dystrophy

49.   Retention of urine, traumatic

50.   Schizophrenia

51.   Sialism, drug-induced

52.   Sjogren syndrome

53.   Sore throat (including tonsillitis)

54.   Spine pain, acute

55.   Stiff neck

56.   Temporomandibular joint dysfunction

57.   Tietze syndrome

58.   Tobacco dependence

59.   Tourette syndrome

60.   Ulcerative colitis, chronic

61.   Urolithiasis

62.   Vascular dementia

63.   Whooping cough (pertussis)  

Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which there are only individual controlled trials reporting some therapeutic effects, but for which acupuncture is worth trying because treatment by conventional and other therapies is difficult:

1.      Chloasma

2.      Choroidopathy, central serous

3.      Color blindness

4.      Deafness

5.      Hypophrenia

6.      Irritable colon syndrome

7.      Neuropathic bladder in spinal cord injury

8.      Pulmonary heart disease, chronic

9.      Small airway obstruction

Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which acupuncture may be tried provided the practitioner has special modern medical knowledge and adequate monitoring equipment:

1.      Breathlessness in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

2.      Coma

3.      Convulsions in infants

4.      Coronary heart disease (angina pectoris)

5.      Diarrhea in infants and young children

6.      Encephalitis, viral, in children, late stage

7.      Paralysis, progressive bulbar and pseudobulbar

It’s important to note, the application of acupuncture is not limited to only the conditions on this list. These are conditions for which acupuncture trials have been conducted, but there are many conditions which have yet to be studied in a well-designed research environment. Acupuncture is a therapy which can be applied to any disease condition.

Acupuncture can take time to have an effect. Patients may feel an immediate sense of relaxation from an acupuncture treatment, however, physiological changes may take up to 10 treatments or more. The number of treatments also depends on whether the condition is chronic or acute. Chronic and long-standing conditions will take longer to treat, whereas acute conditions will resolve faster. Acupuncture is an important resource in the treatment and maintenance of many health conditions.

Written By Jennifer Peterson, MSOM, LAc