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Healthcare Journal of new orleans
I
NOV / DEC 2014
41
you will have more success with rehabili-
tative exercise in order to restore muscle
symmetry and function.”
Squeamishness over needles can be a
concern for some patients, Cohn acknowl-
edges. Helwig also cautions against using
dry needling on patients who have had sur-
gery in recent weeks.
Effectiveness
Although acupuncture was met with skep-
ticism by many in the U.S. medical com-
munity when it first began gaining ground
in the 1970s, it has become more accepted
in recent years. On November 5, 1997, the
National Institutes of Health released its
“NIH Panel Issues Consensus Statement on
Acupuncture,” which concluded that:
“promising results have emerged, for example,
showing efficacy of acupuncture inadult post-
operative and chemotherapy nauseaand vom-
iting and in postoperative dental pain. There
are other situations such as addiction, stroke
rehabilitation, headache, menstrual cramps,
tennis elbow, fibromyalgia, myofascial pain,
osteoarthritis, low back pain, carpal tunnel
syndrome, and asthma, in which acupunc-
ture may be useful as an adjunct treatment or
an acceptable alternative or be included in a
comprehensive management program.”
Because it is of more recent origin, dry
needling is more of an unknown quantity
for many healthcare professionals. There
also is some controversy as to whether
dry needling is really its own procedure or
whether it is merely a form of acupuncture.
Both use the same needles and both tar-
get specific points on the body. Moreover,
many (though not all) of the trigger points
targeted in dry needling overlap with the
meridian-based acupuncture points; how-
ever, the depth to which the needles are
inserted does vary significantly between
the two procedures.
Whether or not dry needling is a form of
acupuncture has significant implications, as
this impacts who is allowed to practice dry
needling. Most physical therapists are not
licensed as acupuncturists.
The use of needle-based therapies is
likely to increase; whether this leads to a
change in classification of dry needling
remains to be seen.
n
Sources
NIH Consensus Statement, Vol. 15, No. 5,
Nov. 3-5, 1997, page 2 http://consensus.nih.
gov/1997/1997Acupuncture107pdf.pdf
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