acupuncture

n. [ L. acus needle + punctura a pricking, fr. pungere to prick: cf. F. acuponcture. ] Pricking with a needle; a needle prick. Specifically (Med.): The insertion of needles into the living tissues for remedial purposes, such as to relieve pain. It was first recorded as being practised in China, and the technique is believed to be over 2, 000 years old. AS [ 1913 Webster ]

Acupuncture
(An NIH Consensus Statement prepared by a nonadvocate, non-Federal panel of experts)

November 3-5, 1997
Vol. 15, No. 5

Acupuncture as a therapeutic intervention is widely practiced in the United States. While there have been many studies of its potential usefulness, many of these studies provide equivocal results because of design, sample size, and other factors. The issue is further complicated by inherent difficulties in the use of appropriate controls, such as placebos and sham acupuncture groups. However, promising results have emerged, for example, showing efficacy of acupuncture in adult post-operative and chemotherapy nausea and vomiting and in post-operative dental pain. There are other situations such as addiction, stroke rehabilitation, headache, menstrual cramps, tennis elbow, fibromyalgia, myofacial pain, osteoarthritis, low back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and asthma where acupuncture may be useful as an adjunct treatment or an acceptable alternative or be included in a comprehensive management program. Further research is likely to uncover additional areas where acupuncture interventions will be useful.
taken from: https://web.archive.org/web/20011126211520/http://odp.od.nih.gov/consensus/cons/107/107_intro.htm [ PJC ]