Acupuncture significantly reduces chronic pain in children, according to new study in U.S., which was published in the Alternative and Complementary Therapies.
Acupuncture's healing power has been scientifically proven to be safe and effective for adults, but its effectiveness for children remained a question. So, to start understanding if this Chinese medicine could possibly play a major role in treating children's chronic pain, researchers from the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago conducted a study.
Researchers ran the test to 55 children, whose aged ranges from 7 to 20. Each patient experienced chronic pain that they been suffering for weeks to months. Pediatric patients underwent to eight session of acupuncture that lasted for 30 minutes. After the tests, experts found out that participants experienced a significant reduction of pain and their emotional health increase.
"The results of this study suggest that acupuncture can have a profound positive impact on the health and well-being of children who experience the disabling effects of chronic pain," Angela Johnson, M.P.H., a practitioner of Chinese medicine at Rush's Cancer Integrative Medicine Program said.
Chronic pain lasts for weeks that can run to years if not treated. This pain affected 20 to 35 percent children worldwide that aged under 18. Conditions include, "headaches, abdominal pain, back pain, musculoskeletal pain, scoliosis, cancer, and leukemia."
Johnson said treating children with this condition is challenging as a "child may not be able to communicate effectively depending on the age and accurate recognition of pain." So, this study is very significant as it allowed them to look directly at the effectiveness of acupuncture in children, rather than collecting data from adults.
The latest discovery contributes just minimal data on the use of acupuncture to pediatric patients. Johnson said that they are hopeful that they can expand their research to a leger number of children in order to better understand how acupuncture ease chronic pain.