Acupuncture & Chronic Pain - An Integrated Approach
Porter Brook Medical Centre. 12/12/24

Further Resources
NICE Guidelines - Click here
Evidence Based Acupuncture Website - Click here
Bristish Acupuncture Council - Click here
British Medical Acupuncture Society - Click here
British Acupuncture Council Fact Sheets - Click here
EXPPECT Endometriosis Acupuncture Service - Click here
Research Articles
Vickers et al Chronic Pain Meta-Analysis - Click here
Effects of acupuncture on brain imaging - Click here
UK Acupuncture for depression study - Click here
Mike Armour et al - Depression study - Click here

Video Links
Electro Acupuncture & Neural Pathways - Click here

The above video of a pop-up style acupuncture clinic was recorded, with permission, at The University of Sheffield during one of this annual Staff Wellbeing Week events.

Chronic Pain Clinic Summary
In June 2016 Heeley Development Trust funded a multibed acupuncture scheme for users of the Chronic Pain Café which was initiated by the Trust and The Sloan Medical Centre for individuals with multimorbidity.
Patients were offered four weekly acupuncture sessions in a multibed setting.

  • Each session lasted 40 minutes.

  • The sessions were held in adjoining private acupuncture rooms.

  • On average needles were retained for thirty minutes.

Out of fifteen patients:

  • 11 patients came to all 4 sessions

  • 1 patient missed 2 sessions (first 2 sessions)

  • 3 patients missed 1 session

 The sessions were evaluated by patients at the beginning of each session using a MYMOP verbal scoring system (Measure yourself medical outcomes profile)

Patients scored two symptoms, a problematic activity and their general wellbeing from 0-6 with zero being as good as it could be and 6 being the worst.

 The results of the scheme were positive overall with an improvement for the majority of patients (87% or 13/15 patients) in all four areas.

The presenting symptom improved on average by 2.07

The secondary symptom improved on average by 1.78

Activity improved by on average 1.3

General Wellbeing improved on average by 1

Overall the results show a very positive improvement for patients with chronic (persistent) pain.

The sample size was limited for this scheme but shows promising outcomes and scope for further clinics of this type.