Anwendungsbeobachtung der seriellen Akupunkturbehandlung von Lumbago und Kopfschmerz in der Allgemeinpraxis

Background

The German Acupuncture Trials (GERAC) have brought good results regarding the acupuncture treatment of lumbago and headache. However, for reasons of scientific practicability, patients included in these trials were restricted by certain criteria (among others, excluding patients after spinal surgery, past experiences with acupuncture, patients with ischialgia). Also, microsystems and other acupuncture-related techniques, such as moxibustion or cupping, were not included.

Objective

The objective of this treatment observation was the assessment of early as well as late results of acupuncture treatment series for lumbago and headache performed on the mixed patient collective of a general practitioner's practice.

Methods

The observation included all patients who received acupuncture for chronic back pain or headache. The treatment observation consists of data collected from 192 treatment series (10 acupuncture sessions each) for lumbago, and 86 treatment series (10 acupuncture sessions each) for headache. There were no restrictions regarding microsystems or acupuncture-related techniques. Acupuncture was administered according to the criteria of Traditional Chinese Medicine; there were no restrictions regarding the selection of the acupuncture points.

Results

The benefit of the treatment in the lumbago group was rated none or poor in 18 cases (9.4 %), moderate in 35 (18.2 %), and very good in 139 (72.4 %) cases. In the headache-group the benefit was rated none or poor in 2 cases (2.3 %), moderate in 28 (32.6 %), and very good in 56 (65.1 %) patients.

Conclusion

The results were encouraging: not only in the restricted setting of a large scientific study, but also within the mixed patient collective of a general practitioner's practice, acupuncture can lead to good results in the therapy of chronic back pain and headache.