Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies
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Focus Alternat Complement Ther©2005 Pharmaceutical Press
Focus Altern Complement Ther 2002; 7: 105
Acupuncture’s increasing popularity, especially among people with chronic disease, has led to attempts to provide evidence of its efficacy and effectiveness by means of randomised trials. An understanding of why people seek acupuncture and what effects they experience and value is a vital prerequisite for relevant and patient centred research trials.
A longitudinal qualitative study of 23 people having acupuncture for the first time for a chronic condition. Each person was interviewed three times over 6 months. The sampling strategy aimed for maximum variation, and analysis was based on the grounded theory method.
Interviewees sought acupuncture primarily because orthodox treatment had been ineffective or was unacceptable because of the risk of adverse effects. They described their experience of acupuncture in terms of the acupuncturists’ diagnostic and needling skills, the therapeutic relationship and a new understanding of the body and self as a whole being. Two types of treatment effects were experienced: symptom effects and whole-person effects. Whole-person effects are made up of changes in energy, strength and relaxation and changes in self-awareness, self-confidence and self responsibility
For people with chronic disease acupuncture is valued for much more than symptom relief. The complex mutually reinforcing connections between process and outcome and between different effects suggest that acupuncture should be evaluated as a complex system.
