Acupuncture and Pain Relief
Acupuncture is used for a wide variety of medical conditions, but in the United States it’s accepted by conventional doctors if at all solely for the treatment of pain.
Many chronic pain patients seem to be helped by acupuncture. This is fortunate, since several common prescription and nonprescription painkillers aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen and indomethacin, for example can cause liver and kidney problems, ulcers and gastrointestinal bleeding.
For kidney-stone pain, acupuncture was found to be as effective as drug treatment. And almost half the subjects receiving drugs had side effects, while no one receiving acupuncture did.
Still, it’s curious that the studies aren’t more compelling-especially since acupuncture is more accepted in this country, and more likely to be covered by insurance, when used to treat pain than when used for other conditions. Physicians who pooh-pooh the idea of using acupuncture for other problems believe in using it for pain.
Perhaps this is because research has shown that the painkilling effect of acupuncture seems to be connected to endorphins (natural, narcotic-like substances produced by our brains). Conventional Western doctors have trouble with the concept of energy traversing invisible channels, but endorphins are something they understand. It’s known that trauma can increase these natural opiates, and one argument used to dispute the effectiveness of acupuncture holds that it works merely by the counterirritant effect (that is, the pain of the needles takes your mind off whatever problem you’re being treated for).
Acupuncture
Acupuncture is the insertion of hair-thin needles into specific points on the body to prevent or treat illness. It's one component of Traditional Chinese Medicine, an integrated system that's been used in china for more than 2000 years.
Which points are selected is important, but so is the angle and depth of the needle insertion; in fact, differences in these factors may cause opposite effects at the same point. Acupressure (pressing on acupuncture points with the fingers) can be substituted for needles, as can electrical stimulation of the points, or placing smoldering cones of the herb moxa (Artemisia vulgaris, or mugwort) on them. Needles sometimes twirled to maximize their effect.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is finally considering taking acupuncture needles off of investigational status, where they've languished for years. This would open the way for acupuncture to be covered by Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance.
That's good news, because acupuncture is effective for a variety of conditions, and it can be used in situations where Western medicine has limitations (stroke rehabilitation, for example, or treatment of addictions) or where Western medicine would be dangerous (to anesthetize someone who can't tolerate normal anesthetic drugs, for example). There's a great deal of potential for the incorporation of acupuncture into our medical care system.
The scientific literature on acupuncture (in English) is quite sparse, and many ailments that are commonly, successfully treated with acupuncture have not been well studied. More controlled trials should be done on pain and addiction, inflammatory bowl disease, depression, infertility and neurological diseases.
Acupuncture for Substance Abuse.
Acupuncture is commonly used to help people withdraw from tobacco, alcohol, heroin or cocaine addiction; it's currently being studied by the National Institute of Drug Abuse, and it's used widely in New York City for outpatient drug detoxification.
The points for treating drug addiction are found on the ear, and they can be taught relatively easily to laypeople, which then only use acupuncture for this specific purpose. Detoxification from chronic use of prescribed opiates usually takes 3-6 months; even "brief" detoxification programs may take more than a month. In an uncontrolled trial of electrical stimulation at ear acupuncture points, twelve out of fourteen chronic pain patients were able to completely withdraw from narcotics within 2-7 days, and they experienced few or no side effects.
The evidence that acupuncture helps with withdrawal symptoms is tantalizing but insufficient, and it probably doesn't help prevent relapses at all. But given the dearth of successful medical treatments for addiction, there clearly needs to be more research into the role of acupuncture detoxification as part of a comprehensive treatment program.
An excellent review of studies of acupuncture and substance abuse was written by Brewington, Smith and Lipton, the first two of whom work at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx, where the use of acupuncture in treating withdrawal symptoms of drug addiction was pioneered. If you're interested in a comprehensive analysis of both published and unpublished trials, see this review.