Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine for Survivors of Torture and Refugee Trauma: A Descriptive Report

Abstract

Refugees with trauma histories are a difficult medical population to treat. Acupuncture care has gained acceptance in many mainstream hospitals in the United States, but research on acupuncture and refugee populations is limited. Herein, we report our experiences with 50 refugees (total acupuncture treatments = 425) at a major tertiary teaching hospital. Patients often reported extreme trauma including physical torture, rape and witnessing the same in family members. Patients represented 13 different countries, with about half the patients being Somali. The primary complaint of all patients was pain (100%). Using the Wong-Baker Faces Pain scale, 56% patients reported pain decreases. Patient acceptance of acupuncture was high. We provide three case histories as illustrative examples. Further research is warranted.

A preliminary comparison of primary care use by refugees before and after acupuncture

“…Diagnosis of chronic pain may have nullified the expectation of normal pain improvement. This assumption is supported by previous investigations in which patients in this population "reported pain for years" [11].…”

“…Thus, past studies have largely focused on utilization and efficacy for this population [2,[7][8][9]. Little is therefore known about use of acupuncture among minority and underserved populations [8,10,11], and few studies have focused on refugees, specifically [12]. Factors contributing to lower use by underserved populations are unclear, though economic barriers have been implicated [5,13,14].…”

Efficacy and safety of electroacupuncture for post stroke depression: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

“…Acupuncture, a traditional Chinese therapy using needles to puncture into acupoints on the body surface, is based on the theory of meridians and the balance of yin, yang, qi, and blood [ 12 , 13 ]. Currently, a number of clinical reports have demonstrated that electroacupuncture (EA) treatment for PSD is significantly effective with few side effects, but there are few randomized controlled trials (RCTs) showing this [ 14 , 15 ].…”

Does Acupuncture Treatment Affect Utilization of Other Hospital Services at an Urban Safety-Net Hospital?

“…Attendance and popularity of the services anecdotally suggest that these modalities were both acceptable and well received cross-culturally, and, when surveyed, patients were enthusiastic about acupuncture. 13,24 Referrals to acupuncture came from multiple departments (Rheumatology, Hematology/Oncology, Pain Management, Family Medicine, Primary Care, and Sports Medicine), the average wait time for first acupuncture visit was greater then 6 weeks, leading to a policy of limiting acupuncture treatments to 10 per 6-month period in order to place new patients into the schedule. Four patients (1.22%) received only acupuncture care at BMC; they were not seen in any other department.…”