Chiropractors and acupuncturists who have lobbied for a bigger role in treating pain have won a preliminary endorsement from federal health officials.
The Food and Drug Administration released proposed changes Wednesday to its blueprint on educating health care providers about treating pain. The guidelines now recommend that doctors get information about chiropractic care and acupuncture as therapies that might help patients avoid prescription opioids.
“[Health care providers] should be knowledgeable about the range of available therapies, when they may be helpful, and when they should be used as part of a multidisciplinary approach to pain management,” the agency wrote in the proposal.
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I support acupuncture and welcome the changes in the draft “FDA Blueprint for Prescriber Education for Extended-Release and Long-Acting Opioids”.
I hope that acupuncture, “as one of the oldest pain relief techniques in history, can find a place in the management of pain in acute care settings and also for chronic pain management” . This not only should be considered to help alleviate the opiate epidemic crisis but also in today’s increasingly complicated and polymedicated patients to avoid adverse drug reactions.
According “Acupuncture vs. intravenous morphine in the management of acute pain in the ED” (a study published in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine, July 2016), the outcome point out taht in patients with acute pain presenting to the ER, acupuncture was associated with more effective and faster analgesia with even better tolerance.
Highland General Hospital is a public hospital that treats a lot of traumatic injury patients. In their recent published study of “Acupuncture for Pain and Nausea in the Intensive Care Unit: A Feasibility Study in a Public Safety Net Hospital” (Published in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 2017), the conclusion is “Acupuncture is feasible, safe and acceptable in an ICU setting by patients from diverse backgrounds”.
In addition, acupuncture has Low cost. The Insurance plans that cover acupuncture only cost an extra $0.37-0.76 per person each month. (Massachusetts government). ”
Acupuncture should be one of the key solutions for non opiate pain treatment and management.
. I welcome FDA aware of the acupuncture studies in both basic science and clinical trials, supported by National Center for Complementary and Integrative health (NCCIH), and National Center Institute (NCI), National Institutes of Health (NIH).
For the studies in acupuncture for pain, there are more than 7,000 articles were published and documented in PUBMED or say Medline. FDA probably aware of almost all acupuncture studies in basic science studies have positive results, they show acupuncture has sure effects on pain deceasing in animal projects.
Acupuncture can increase endorphin, serotonin, dopamine, and other internal neurotransmitters, and heal the course of pain (such as caused by various inflammatory, and neurogenic issues), and also directly treat the pain. For acupuncture clinical trials, most of them show acupuncture is both safe and effective if the studies had enough patient samples (i.e. P<0.05).
I have been treating pain condition patients with acupuncture for more than 24 years. Acupuncture is effective and safe for all kinds of the pain control. With acupuncture patients do not need to take so many pain med even stop taking pain medicine which have so many side effects and toxins to their bodies. More and more patients come to me because they got tired of the pain med and had been suffering so much from the side effects. I strongly support that FDA promote the Acupuncture treatments instead of using pain med.
In USA, the biggest healthcare system, Veteran healthcare system, has more
than 1700 facilities, of 2015, 93% established integrative medicine centers or
programs, they provide veterans acupuncture.
I welcome FDA aware of people’s right (patient’s right). Currently many people choose natural therapies, such as acupuncture. People aware of that chemical (such as pharmaceutic medications) may cause potential problems.
I understand some other people has right to use pharmaceutic medications, but these people should NOT block us using CAM, especially acupuncture. Doctors should have right to introducing acupuncture to their patients, if the pharmaceutic medicines, especially extended-release and long-acting opioids become a serious problem.
3. I welcome FDA to be aware of the hot wave and big trend of building up
integrative medicine centers in conventional medicine facilities and medical schools in the USA and around the world. I have so many patients that are benefit from Acupuncture to resolve the pain. Acupuncture is a cost effective methods and have very little side effect on the body. I don’t see a reason that exclude it from the popular clinical practice on treating the pain.
Compared to NSAIDs and Opiods, acupuncture has the fewest harms and costs. Used for thousands of years, acupuncture is effective in treating acute, subacute and chronic pain. FDA should consider acupuncture for pain management.
Acupuncture has thousands years history to treat many health conditions, specially for pain problems. Within clinical pain management, acupuncture is an appropriate primary treatment. With both acute and chronic pain symptoms, or when functional or organ diseases cause the pain, acupuncture treatment will generally be effective. It relieves pain by treatment of the root causes, not by placebo effect. Most prescription drugs have side effect towards the liver, kidneys, or stomach. Therefore, considering the safety and effectiveness, acupuncture should be considered as a primary option for clinical pain management.
“…by treatment of the root causes, not by placebo effect.” You believe this because you believe in “qi.” But qi is mythical. There is not an iota of evidence for its existence, making acupuncture quasi-religious. The FDA should not be in the business of promoting faith-based practices.
Within clinical pain management, acupuncture is an appropriate primary treatment. With both acute and chronic pain symptoms, or when functional or organ diseases cause the pain, acupuncture treatment will generally be effective. It relieves pain by treatment of the root causes, not by placebo effect. Most prescription drugs have side effect towards the liver, kidneys, or stomach. Therefore, considering the safety and effectiveness, acupuncture should be considered as a primary option for clinical pain management.
Used successfully for centuries, acupuncture practice by MD’s here is overdue because anesthesia has become overly complex, recovery times can be reduced significantly with it, lower cost of AP is well known where it is used. Problem is “big pharma” and “AMA” have the political clout at the moment.
You do know that acupuncture as we know it today was invented in the 1950s by chairman Mao, right? He did this because China was a poor country unable to afford real medicine.