Acupuncture

World Health Organization Review of Acupuncture’s Efficacy.

In 1999, the World Health Organization (WHO) convened an expert panel of acupuncture researchers to comprehensively review controlled clinical trials, and to list conditions for which there is scientific evidence of acupuncture’s efficacy. The report entitled Acupuncture: Review and Analysis of Controlled Clinical Trials was published in 2003.

Conditions listed by the WHO expert panel include, among others:

• Adverse reactions to radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy
• Allergic rhinitis (including hay fever)
• Anxiety
• Dysmenorrhoea (painful menstrual periods)
• Headache
• Knee pain
• Low back pain
• Mal-position of fetus (breech)
• Morning sickness
• Nausea and vomiting
• Neck pain
• Dental pain
• Shoulder pain
• Postoperative pain
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Sciatica
• Stroke recovery
• Tennis elbow
• Abdominal pain
• Alcohol dependence and detoxification
• Bell's palsy
• Asthma
• Fertility Treatment
• Fibromyalgia
• Insomnia
• Male sexual dysfunction, non-organic
• Osteoarthritis
• Poly-cystic ovary syndrome
• Postoperative recovery
• Premenstrual syndrome
• Prostatitis, chronic
• Stiff neck
• Temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJ)
• Ulcerated colitis, chronic
• Irritable Bowel syndrome

Conditions which are long-standing may take longer to resolve than conditions arising recently. While a practitioner can never promise a particular outcome, the vast majority of patients experience notable improvements with acupuncture.