Pain in the Emergency Department helped by Acupuncture

Pain Authors of a large American pilot study have concluded acupuncture is a feasible and beneficial, non-pharmacological option for treating pain in the emergency department. The researchers’ aim was to determine the feasibility of employing an acupuncturist in an urban emergency department, to provide an acute pain management option.

Of 706 patients with acute pain, 379 agreed to try acupuncture in the emergency department of a Milwaukee hospital. Their mean pain scores decreased significantly (from 6.5 to 3.4), as did their levels of stress, anxiety and nausea. The treatment was well received.

One author reported, “We believe this research is very important because America is currently in the throes of a pain management and opioid crisis. What contributed to this crisis was a belief that new technologies, surgical procedures, and the liberal use of opioids would be the answers to controlling human pain. As we now know, these strategies have not proven efficacious in mitigating pain, suffering, and disability to the extent the public was led to believe.”

(ED Acupuncture: Feasibility, Acceptability, and Impact on Pain. American Pain Society Annual Meeting, April 2019.)

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.