Western Named Conditions
What sorts of conditions is acupuncture beneficial for?
Research into acupuncture as a medical treatment has grown exponentially in the past 20 years, increasing at twice the rate of research into conventional biomedicine. A wide-variety of clinical areas have been studied, including pain, cancer, pregnancy, stroke, mood disorders, sleep disorders and inflammation, to name a few.
Recently the Acupuncture Evidence Project* reviewed the effectiveness of acupuncture for 122 treatments over 14 clinical areas. They found evidence of effect for 117 conditions “with stronger evidence for some conditions than others”:
- Allergic Rhinitis
- Cancer pain
- Plantar heel pain
- Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting
- Cancer-related fatigue
- Post-stroke insomnia
- Chronic low back pain
- Constipation
- Post-stroke shoulder pain
- Headache (twnsion type and chronic)
- Craniotomy anaesthesia
- Post-stroke spasticity
- Knee osteoarthritis
- Depression (with antidepressants)
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Migraine prophylaxis
- Dry eye
- Prostatitis pain / chronic pelvic pain
- Postoperative nausea & vomiting
- Hypertension (with medication)
- Recovery after colorectal cancer resection
- Postoperative pain
- Insomnia
- Restless leg syndrome
- Acute low back pain
- Irritable bowel syndrome
- Schizophrenia (with antipsychotics)
- Acute stroke
- Labour pain
- Sciatica
- Ambulatory anaesthesia
- Lateral elbow pain
- Shoulder impingement syndrome, early stage (with exercise)
- Temporomandibular pain
- Anxiety
- Menopausal hot flushes
- Shoulder pain
- Aromatose-inhibitor-induced arthralgia
- Neck pain
- Smoking cessation (up to 3 months)
- Asthma in adults
- Obesity
- Stroke rehabilitation
- Back or pelvic pain during pregnancy
- Perimenopausal & postmenopausal insomnia
* McDonald J, Janz S. The Acupuncture Evidence Project: A Comparative Literature Review (Revised edition). © Australian Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine Association Ltd, 2017: http://www.acupuncture.org.au