Acupuncture in Pain Management

Chronic pain is a significant and sometimes debilitating medical problem, which has a significant impact in our economy and quality of life. It is perhaps the most common reason for Americans to seek medical care and is the leading cause of disability. Despite several options of chronic pain treatment including medications and interventional procedures, the long-term effect of current treatments remains limited. Therefore, it is both necessary and timely to seek complementary and alternative treatments as a part of integrative medicine for chronic pain management. Acupuncture is a well-known modality of complementary and alternative medicine that may help improve pain and related comorbid symptoms, decrease drug dependency and usage, and lead to better quality of life. Although acupuncture has been used over thousands of years for the treatment of many clinical conditions including clinical pain, many factors remain unclear to healthcare providers with regard to its effectiveness, mechanisms and side effects. This book consists of fourteen interrelated chapters to provide the following categories of up-to-date information: 1) the general concept of acupuncture and its role in pain management, 2) current research evidence of acupuncture mechanisms, 3) acupuncture and neuroimaging, and 4) clinical data on various modalities of acupuncture therapy including auricular acupuncture and their role in treating pain conditions such as low back and neck pain, headaches, osteoarthritis pain, abdominal and pelvic pain, neuropathic pain, myofascial pain, cancer-related pain, postoperative pain, and pediatric pain. Moreover, a chapter on Tai Chi, an ancient Chinese martial art, is included to discuss its role in chronic pain treatment. There is also a chapter to discuss the challenges in evaluating acupuncture trial outcomes and the current research effort on this issue. We trust that this book will help healthcare providers to gain comprehensive knowledge on the role of acupuncture therapy in pain management.