The Current State of Acupuncture Use in the United States

摘要

A review of the literature evaluating the efficacy of acupuncture was undertaken. This was accomplished by performing a literature search and evaluating selected journal articles, clinical trials, and systematic reviews of clinical trials. One finds that in China and Japan acupuncture enjoys broad application as primary and adjunctive therapy for a wide variety of medical conditions. In the United States, acupuncture is largely employed in the control of painful conditions. Limitations to broader application of acupuncture as a therapeutic modality in the United States seem to be multifactorial and reflect a fundamental difference in the manner in which medical care is conceptualized and practiced in the United States. We are attempting to fit a broadly variable treatment modality based on an alternative concept of healing, into research based on a rigid view of scientific methodology.