Treating PTSD With Acupuncture
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric diagnosis used to identify and ultimately treat people who experience chronic negative mental, emotional, and physical reactions following a traumatic event or series of events. These disturbing experiences feature actual or threatened harm to oneself or others and include but are not limited to sexual assault, combat exposure, acts of terrorism, natural disasters, and serious accidents. In a study of 5,377 adults living in Hong Kong (Wu et al., 2019), several specific types of trauma were found to strongly engender the development of PTSD: sexual assault, unwanted or uncomfortable sexual experience, captivity, severe human suffering, and sudden and violent death. The DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association, 2013) explicitly states that PTSD is “especially severe or long-lasting when the stressor is interpersonal and intentional (e.g., torture, sexual violence)” (p. 275).
Chinese medicine has been documenting and treating mental health disorders for more than 2,000 years. The Huangdi Neijing, a Chinese medical text composed during the warring states period 2,200 years ago, explores the connection between physical and emotional health (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 2011). It describes instances in which extreme emotions are pathogenic, causing disease within the body by interfering with the flow of qi (Leung, 1998, p. 119). In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), the body and the mind are inseparable. Our physical body houses our intangible spirit, a dance of yin and yang that marries heaven and earth. The health of the body will impact psychological and emotional wellbeing just as mental health will affect our physical body. Therefore, Eastern medicine diagnoses and treats both mental and physical components of disease in order to determine the appropriate treatment.
Current research is promising and supports the continued study of acupuncture's use in the treatment of PTSD. Currently available data indicate that acupuncture safely and effectively treats symptoms of PTSD by consistently reducing symptom severity, improving sleep, outperforming usual care, and producing far less adverse events than standard care approaches. All studies identified significant beneficial effect on participants who received acupuncture and patients reported enjoying the acupuncture interventions. Acupuncture is a safe, low cost, effective method of treatment for PTSD that is easy to implement within existing treatment structures.
References:
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596
Leung, J.P. (1998). Emotions and mental health in Chinese people. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 7(2): 115-128. doi: 10.1023/A:1022989730432
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. (2011). Huang Di Nei Jing (Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon). Retrieved December 4, 2019, from http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/memory-of-the-world/register/full-list-of-registered-heritage/registered-heritage-page-4/huang-di-nei-jing-yellow-emperors-inner-canon/
Wu, K.K., Leung, P.W.L., Wong, C.S.M., Yu, P.M.W., Luk, B.T.C., Cheng, J.P.K., & … Lam, L.C.W. (2019). The Hong Kong survey on the epidemiology of trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Traumatic Stress, electronically published on August 8, 2019 ahead of print. doi: 10.1002/jts.22430
This blog post is a distilled adaptation from my doctorate capstone thesis entitled Treatment Outcomes of Acupuncture for Non-Traumatic Brain Injury Associated Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Mixed-Method Literature Review, a 49 page exploration of data which contains a far more detailed analysis of the current literature.