Traditional Chinese Medicine has been used to effectively treat a wide variety of conditions and diseases for 2500 years till the present day. In the last two decades, there was an extensive amount of research studies in the form of clinical trials to assess the effectiveness of acupuncture. In 2003 the World Health Organization (WHO) released an official report on the use of acupuncture for treatment of more than 100 indications. The list of indications is divided into four groups based on the strength of the existing evidence.
Please note that the 2003 WHO report only includes published data collected up till 1999 and is not up-to-date with the current research. Please contact us so we can address your specific condition that may or may not be listed below.
World Health Organization on Acupuncture
Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which acupuncture has been proven to be an effective treatment:
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Adverse reactions to radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy
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Allergic rhinitis (including hay fever)
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Biliary colic
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Depression (including depressive neurosis and depression following stroke)
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Dysentery, acute bacillary
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Dysmenorrhoea, primary
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Epigastralgia, acute (in peptic ulcer, acute and chronic gastritis, and gastrospasm)
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Facial pain (including craniomandibular disorders)
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Headache
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Hypertension, essential
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Hypotension, primary
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Induction of labour
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Knee pain
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Leukopenia
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Low back pain
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Malposition of fetus, correction of
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Morning sickness
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Nausea and vomiting
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Neck pain
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Pain in dentistry (including dental pain and temporomandibular dysfunction)
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Periarthritis of shoulder
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Postoperative pain
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Renal colic
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Rheumatoid arthritis
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Sciatica
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Sprain
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Stroke
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Tennis elbow
Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which the therapeutic effect of acupuncture has been shown but for which further proof is needed:
- Abdominal pain (in acute gastroenteritis or due to gastrointestinal spasm)
- Acne vulgaris
- Alcohol dependence and detoxification
- Bell’s palsy
- Bronchial asthma
- Cancer pain
- Cardiac neurosis
- Cholecystitis, chronic, with acute exacerbation
- Cholelithiasis
- Competition stress syndrome
- Craniocerebral injury, closed
- Diabetes mellitus, non-insulin-dependent
- Earache
- Epidemic haemorrhagic fever
- Epistaxis, simple (without generalized or local disease)
- Eye pain due to subconjunctival injection
- Female infertility
- Facial spasm
- Female urethral syndrome
- Fibromyalgia and fasciitis
- Gastrokinetic disturbance
- Gouty arthritis
- Hepatitis B virus carrier status
- Herpes zoster (human (alpha) herpesvirus 3)
- Hyperlipaemia
- Hypo-ovarianism
- Insomnia
- Labour pain
- Lactation, deficiency
- Male sexual dysfunction, non-organic
- Ménière disease
- Neuralgia, post-herpetic
- Neurodermatitis
- Obesity
- Opium, cocaine and heroin dependence
- Osteoarthritis
- Pain due to endoscopic examination
- Pain in thromboangiitis obliterans
- Polycystic ovary syndrome (Stein–Leventhal syndrome)
- Postextubation in children
- Postoperative convalescence
- Premenstrual syndrome
- Prostatitis, chronic
- Pruritus
- Radicular and pseudoradicular pain syndrome
- Raynaud syndrome, primary
- Recurrent lower urinary-tract infection
- Reflex sympathetic dystrophy
- Retention of urine, traumatic
- Schizophrenia
- Sialism, drug-induced
- Sjögren syndrome
- Sore throat (including tonsillitis)
- Spine pain, acute
- Stiff neck
- Temporomandibular joint dysfunction
- Tietze syndrome
- Tobacco dependence
- Tourette syndrome
- Ulcerative colitis, chronic
- Urolithiasis
- Vascular dementia
- Whooping cough (pertussis)
Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which there are only individual controlled trials reporting some therapeutic effects, but for which acupuncture is worth trying because treatment by conventional and other therapies is difficult:
- Chloasma
- Choroidopathy, central serous
- Colour blindness
- Deafness
- Hypophrenia
- Irritable colon syndrome
- Neuropathic bladder in spinal cord injury
- Pulmonary heart disease, chronic
- Small airway obstruction
Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which acupuncture may be tried provided the practitioner has special modern medical knowledge and adequate monitoring equipment:
- Breathlessness in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
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Coma
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Convulsions in infants
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Coronary heart disease (angina pectoris)
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Diarrhoea in infants and young children
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Encephalitis, viral, in children, late stage
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Paralysis, progressive bulbar and pseudobulbar
Source: World Health Organization Acupuncture: Review and Analysis of Reports on Controlled Clinical Trial