Acupuncture as a PT

[Jagger1283]

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Hey guys, I'm new to this forum, but I just wanted to hear your opinions concerning acupuncture. A few months ago, I took a course on dry needling and began my first treatment regimen on a number of my patients. My employer took notice, and decided to send me to a medical acupuncture course nearby. It's an intensive 6 month course learning the ins and outs of medical acupuncture, which is a blend of both traditional chinese medicine acupuncture and western medicine.

I was curious as to your opinion on the efficacy or any experience you have had receiving it with the effects on the treatment of pain.

 

[DPTinFL]

Personally, accupunture has worked for me and other family members so I believe in it.
What state are you located in? We had a mini course on dry needling in school but in the state of FL, PTs are not allowed to puncture the skin so therefore we cannot practice dry needling or accupunture. In addition, I thought you have to be a licensed accupuncturist to practice accupuncture meaning a graduate of an accredited program and passing the national exam.

 

[Jagger1283]

Well, my situation is a little different. I am a PT in the navy, and we really don't follow any state laws. But to answer your question, I am practicing in California.

Normally, yes, you would have to follow one of two paths to practice acupuncture. The first is the traditional chinese medicine degree, which consists of years of learning modalities beyond just acupuncture. The second, the one I am doing now, is for current physicians to take a more abbreviated and western-ized version to apply to your medical practice once you have passed the exam. Somehow, even though I am not a physician, the navy was able to get me into this program for the next six months. (Our podiatrist, also the local acupuncturist, got deployed so I was the lucky guy to replace him.)

I am glad to hear acupuncture worked for you. I just have to spend hours watching video lectures and reading hundreds of pages in a textbook, and I wanted to make sure that some people out there have actually seen some benefit from this treatment. I don't really know very many people who have had acupuncture before.

 

[WSUPT]

Jagger1283, hello from a fellow Navy PT! Are you DUINS for the course or is it something that you are doing via correspondence? I haven't prescribed or performed dry needling, or acupuncture - very similar modalities from what I understand, myself. One of the PA's and a sports med doc at the SMART clinic where I work do perform it from time to time. There seems to be fair anecdotal evidence that supports its use. Although one could argue that the pain certainly does go away once that needle is removed from your body! I wanna say that they use a 20ga needle.

 

[facetguy]

This study was published last month in Spine:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21952184

Evaluated available evidence comparing exercise, spinal manipulation and acupuncture for chronic LBP.

It reminded me of another study from a few years ago, comparing meds, manipulation and acupuncture :
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12865832

And the follow-up study:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15726029

I'm sure there are other studies involving acupuncture; these just popped into my head. I know there are studies comparing exercise with manipulation, and they usually show manipulation to be at least as effective if not more so.

Just from my experience, I have had a fair number of patients benefit from acupuncture over the years. I do refer patients to a local acupuncturist from time to time.

 

[okramango]

I am a pre-PT student who has benefitted greatly from acupuncture over the years. I've personally found it to be especially helpful for pain management, and have never found the treatments themselves to be painful in the least bit. I studied Chinese martial arts for many years, and lots of people in my martial art community used and benefitted from acupuncture regularly.

 

[Jagger1283]

Thanks guys, I appreciate all the info! I've noticed acupuncture works really well with manipulation, especially in the L-Spine. I'm also using some battlefield acupuncture in the ear. Very interesting reactions to this. I definitely didn't buy into the homunculus located on the ear at first, but it has been very effective for some of my acute pain patients. I'm trying not to drink the kool aide too fast though.

WSUPT, good to hear from another AD therapist! I'm not taking this course through DUINS, however it is a combination of videos, textbook readings, and three sets of five day classroom sessions. They are spread out over a period of several months. Not an easy task to watch about two hours of video a day and handle the typical 50 patient per day caseload. The needles we generally use vary in size and shape, measured in mm. Many different kinds ranging from about 20mm to 75mm, and 0.25 mm in width to about 0.40mm.

Are you greenside?

Facetguy, Thanks for the articles. Really good stuff.

 

[rangardrum]

Are there studies comparing acupuncture, "false" acupuncture (similar-looking treatment given to patient associated with producing no effect to test the extent of placebo effect at work), conventional treatments, as well as a control group receiving no treatments for chronic pain? Or something similar?

 

[_FNG_]

I'm not familiar with acupuncture and its conceptual ideas. However, trigger point dry needling, or intramuscular manual therapy as its been labeled in other places, is money and, in my opinion, will be a game changer in PT practice similar to manipulation. Now that its become a part of my practice, I couldn't imagine not using it in clinical practice.

Did you Navy guys graduate from Baylor's program? If so, when?

 

[Jagger1283]

I can't speak for WSUPT, but I did not graduate from Baylor. I didn't even think about applying to the navy or get commissioned until I was just about to graduate. I graduated from University of MD-Eastern Shore. However, I plan on doing the manual therapy fellowship at Baylor after my tour on a carrier.

I agree, dry needling is the next breakthrough in PT. FMS and SFMA combined with dry needling works wonders in the clinic.