Conditions Treated With Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine

In 2003 the World Health Organization published a document called Acupuncture: Review and Analysis of Reports on Controlled Clinical Trials.  The objective was "to provide a review and analysis of controlled clinical trials of acupuncture therapy, as reported in the current literature, with a view to strengthening and promoting the appropriate use of acupuncture in health care systems throughout the world."

Section 3 of the publication is a discussion of "the diseases or disorders for which acupuncture therapy has been tested in controlled clinical trials reported in the recent literature."  Below is a partial listing of these conditions.  Listings in Blue have been treated at our clinic.

1. Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which acupuncture has been proved - through controlled trials - to be an effective treatment:

Adverse reactions to radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy                            Leukopenia
Allergic rhinitis /  hay fever                                                                        Low back pain
Depression (including depression following stroke)                                    Morning sickness
Dysentery, acute bacillary                                                                         Nausea and vomiting
Dysmenorrhoea, primary                                                                          Neck Pain
Epigastralgia, acute (acute/chronic gastritis, gastrospasm)                          Periarthritis of shoulder
Facial pain (including craniomandibular disorders)                                     Postoperative pain
Headache                                                                                                Rheumatoid arthritis
Hypertension, essential                                                                             Sciatica
Hypotension, primary                                                                               Sprain
Induction of labor                                                                                     Stroke
Knee pain                                                                                                Tennis Elbow

2. Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which the therapeutic effect of acupuncture has been shown but for which further proof is needed:

Abdominal pain (acute gastroenteritis / gastrointestinal spasm)                  Labor Pain
Acne vulgaris                                                                                          Lactation, deficiency
Alcohol dependence and detoxification                                                    Male sexual dysfunction, non-organic
Bell’s palsy                                                                                             Meniere's disease
Bronchial asthma                                                                                    Neuralgia, post-herpatic
Cancer pain                                                                                            Neurodermatitis
Cholecystitis, chronic, with acute exacerbation                                         Obesity
Cholelithiasis (gall stones)                                                                        Opium, cocaine and heroin dependence
Competition stress syndrome                                                                   Osteoarthritis
Diabetes mellitus, non-insulin-dependent                                                  Polycystic ovary syndrome
Earache                                                                                                  Postoperative convalescence
Epidemic hemorrhagic fever                                                                    Premenstrual syndrome
Female infertility                                                                                      Prostatitis, chronic
Facial spasm                                                                                           Raynaud syndrome, primary
Female urethral syndrome                                                                        Recurrent lower urinary-tract infection
Fibromyalgia and fasciitis                                                                         Sore throat (including tonsillitis)
Gouty arthritis                                                                                          Spine pain, acute
Hepatitis B virus carrier status                                                                  Stiff neck
Herpes zoster (human (alpha) herpesvirus 3)                                            Temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJ)
Hyperlipademia                                                                                       Tobacco dependence
Hypo-ovarianism                                                                                     Ulcerative colitis, chronic
Insomnia                                                                                                 Whooping cough (pertussis)