Medizinische Universität Graz Austria/Österreich - Forschungsportal - Medical University of Graz
Gewählte Publikation:
Steiner, A.
Acupuncture as treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) - an evidence based review
[ Diplomarbeit/Master Thesis ] Graz Medical University; 2009. pp. 46
[OPEN ACCESS]
FullText
- Autor*innen der Med Uni Graz:
- Betreuer*innen:
- Sandner-Kiesling Andreas
- Altmetrics:
- Abstract:
- Background: In the western countries for the past decade, a distinct demand for acupuncture treatment in addition to the western medical treatment and therapy models is recognized. The image of a holistic medicine is gaining increasing acceptance among medical experts. For many clinical symptoms and syndromes acupuncture treatment according to the rules of traditional chinese medicine (TCM) is already documented and quality assured. Continuous expansion and therapy improvement will offer acupuncture treatment also in patients with chronic diseases. In TCM, a disease is described with "damp hot diarrhea. This clinical picture can be assigned to the inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). To date, for IBD it was difficult to find a corresponding treatment algorithm. This fact extends the application areas for alternative therapies, assuming acupuncture a special and effective rating. Methods: Due to acute relevance of this topic (increasing incidence rates in highly developed countries, with a life of suffering and psychological strain) this literature research was performed. The number of studies up to now addressing IBD and acupuncture is small. The reason why can be attributed to patients itself: Study participants with a deterioration of health status, in most cases characterized by an increase in inflammatory activity, and in some cases shortly after the beginning of the study, had to end the participation because of starting an adequate medication, thus not fulfilling the inclusion criteria of the study. Results: All patients had significantly less inflammatory activity during acupuncture treatment. The clinical parameters showed no change after the end of the study. All study participants in the TCM group reported a significant improvement in their quality of life. Conclusion: Due to the small number of studies, it is difficult to rate the results. As the acupuncturist always needs to know the location of the needled acupuncture point, double-blinded studies are extremely difficult to set up. Acupuncture treatment for complex diseases has already demonstrated positive effects. However, further studies are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of acupuncture treatment for IBD.