Clinicians in America have found acupuncture to be an acceptable and effective adjunctive technique for reducing pain and anxiety in the hospital accident and emergency department.
In the pilot observational study, retrospective data for 14 months was used to identify 182 patients who had received acupuncture in addition to standard care in the emergency department of Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Minneapolis. Of these, 52% did not receive painkillers before or during their acupuncture treatment; their average reported decrease in pain was 2.4 points. This compared well with the average 2.8 point pain decrease in those patients who had received painkillers. Additionally though, there was a significant decrease in anxiety scores among the patients who had received acupuncture.
(Acceptability, Adaptation, and Clinical Outcomes of Acupuncture Provided in the Emergency Department: A Retrospective Pilot Study. Pain Medicine, online 25 February 2016.)
Author: Robin Costello
I offer traditional Chinese acupuncture in Exeter, from a tranquil clinic a mile from the city centre, and next to the University of Exeter. I graduated originally from the London School of Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine’s 3 year full time Acupuncture Diploma (DipAc) course. I am on the practitioners register of the British Acupuncture Council (MBAcC), a regulatory and professional body with an entry standard of a full three year undergraduate degree level training.
I have worked in a hospital in south west China, deepening my knowledge and using acupuncture and Chinese massage (tuina) as the treatment of choice in its country of origin. I have taught Chinese medicine in colleges, the NHS and at university level. I also practise Qi Gong, and Chinese dietary therapy, that is the medicinal use of ordinary foods, chosen to help achieve particular therapeutic effects in different individuals.
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