Acupuncture (cont.)
What are the possible side effects of acupuncture?
The most common serious injury reported from the needles
of acupuncture has been accidental puncture of the lung.
This results in a partial collapse of the lung called
pneumothorax. The most common infection reported from
acupuncture treatments is viral hepatitis, a potentially
serious infection of the liver. Other side effects include
bacterial infections locally at the site of needle
insertion in the skin and elsewhere in the body. Generally,
side effects seem to relate to poor hygiene and training of
the acupuncturist.
For what conditions has acupuncture treatment been
found helpful?
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Consensus
Development Program was established in 1977 and is designed
to assess health technology. The program organizes major
conferences that produce consensus statements and
technology assessment statements on controversial issues in
medicine important to health care providers, patients, and
the general public. The following statement is from the NIH
Consensus Development Statement on Acupuncture on November
3-5, 1997.
Acupuncture as a therapeutic intervention is widely
practiced in the United States. There have been many
studies of its potential usefulness. However, many of these
studies provide equivocal results because of design, sample
size, and other factors. The issue is further complicated
by inherent difficulties in the use of appropriate
controls, such as placebo and sham acupuncture groups.
However, promising results have emerged, for example,
efficacy of acupuncture in adult post-operative and
chemotherapy nausea and vomiting and in post-operative
dental pain. There are other situations such as
addiction, stroke rehabilitation, headache, menstrual
cramps, tennis elbow, fibromyalgia, myofascial pain,
osteoarthritis, low back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and
asthma where acupuncture may be useful as an adjunct
treatment or an acceptable alternative or be included in a
comprehensive management program.
Findings from basic research have begun to elucidate the
mechanisms of action of acupuncture, including the release
of opioids and other peptides in the central nervous system
and the periphery and changes in neuroendocrine function.
Although much needs to be accomplished, the emergence of
plausible mechanisms for the therapeutic effects of
acupuncture is encouraging.
The introduction of acupuncture into the choice of
treatment modalities that are readily available to the
public is in its early stages. Issues of training,
licensure, and reimbursement remain to be clarified. There
is sufficient evidence, however, of acupuncture's value to
expand its use into conventional medicine and to encourage
further studies of its physiology and clinical value.
This statement is representative of the opinions of current
standard medical practice.
Next: How does acupuncture work? »
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