Acupuncture for Cancer Pain and Symptom Management in a Palliative Medicine Clinic

Miller, Katherine; Patel, Jai N.; Symanowski, James T.; Edelen, Connie; Walsh, Declan

doi:10.1177/1049909118804464

Cited by 40 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 33 publications

(39 reference statements)

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“…102 In an observational study of 68 patients receiving acupuncture in palliative care, Miller et al found significant reduction in pain, anxiety, depression, drowsiness, dyspnea, fatigue, nausea, and wellbeing, with association between improved depression and fatigue and pain reduction. 103 In a qualitative study of patient experiences receiving acupuncture in a hospice setting, McPhail et al interviewed 20 patients and found generally consistent experiences that acupuncture not only reduced many physical symptoms but that it also improved emotional and psychological health and, for some, enhanced spiritual wellbeing. 104 In conditions like cancer, various symptoms often occur together, leading to the recognition of ''symptom clusters.''…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acupuncture as a Treatment Within Integrative Health for Palliative Care: A Brief Narrative Review of Evidence and Recommendations

Birch

Bovey

Alræk

et al. 2020

The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine

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Background: Acupuncture is one of the fastest developing evidence bases in Complementary Medicine and is one of the leading therapies included within integrative health care. This narrative review includes two separate parts: the first is about evaluation of the current evidence status in reviews on acupuncture and the second examines and gives examples of available recommendations on acupuncture in treatment guidelines from health care experts and public health organizations recommending acupuncture as a viable treatment in patients in palliative care. Methods: Electronic searches were performed in PubMed using the terms ''acupuncture'' + ''palliative'' and adding the term ''safety'' to find review articles documenting safety and evidence of effectiveness of acupuncture for treatment of symptoms in palliative care patients. Treatment guidelines that recommend use of acupuncture for symptom control in palliative care were found by searching through a database currently under construction by the lead author. Results: Acupuncture shows emerging evidence for 17 indications in palliative care. Examples were found and presented of publications recommending acupuncture for treatment of symptoms for patients in palliative care from Government, public health, oncology, and medical expert sources. The most publications are in oncology, but other conditions were found and a number were found in pediatric care. Conclusions: While the evidence for use of acupuncture to treat symptoms in palliative care patients is relatively weak, the evidence base is growing. Experts worldwide are also increasingly recommending acupuncture as a treatment for symptoms in palliative care. Since acupuncture is a safe, nonpharmacological treatment but with small, clinically significant effects, these recommended uses appear as pragmatic efforts to bridge the gap of treatment options available to this patient group.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acupuncture as a Treatment Within Integrative Health for Palliative Care: A Brief Narrative Review of Evidence and Recommendations

Birch

Bovey

Alræk

et al. 2020

The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine

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“…Evidence indicates that acupuncture can be an effective complementary therapy for those receiving cancer treatment, improving post-operative pain and chemotherapy-related nausea and vomiting [7]. It has further been found to improve pain, depression, anxiety, drowsiness, fatigue, numbness or tingling, sleep disturbance, and hot ushes [8,9].…”

Section: Who Guidelinesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Acupuncture provides a possible complementary therapy with the potential to relieve both the side-effects of treatment to the patient [6][7][8][9], and informal caregivers [10]. Acupuncture involves penetrating the skin with thin stainless steel needles on speci c locations of the body [1,6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acupuncture as a complementary therapy for cancer care: acceptability and preferences of patients and informal caregivers

Lefebvre

Tack

Blieck

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Abstract Background: Acupuncture provides a possible complementary therapy which can be used alongside or following cancer treatment to relieve side-effects for cancer patients and survivors, such as pain and depression. Equally, it can provide relief from symptoms such as anxiety and sleep disturbance, which are recognised as significant issues among caregivers of those with cancer. The aim of this study was to explore the acceptability and preferences of cancer patients, disease survivors and their informal caregivers in relation to acupuncture.Methods: A questionnaire was developed to explore acceptability and preferences of cancer patients, disease survivors and their caregivers in relation to acupuncture, including motivations to use acupuncture, preferred symptoms to be addressed, and practical issues (location; cost).Results: A participation rate of 94.5% was obtained, with 116 participating patients and survivors, and 54 caregivers. Acceptability of acupuncture was around 1/3 for patients (34.5%; 40/116) and almost half for informal caregivers (48.0%; 26/54). In terms of preferences, the day care clinic was the favoured location for patients (52.5%; 21/40) to undergo acupuncture, while there was no specific preference on location observed for caregivers. A large number of patients indicated they would be willing to pay to receive the complementary therapy (60%; 24/40). Symptoms of fatigue, feeling listless, and pain were most often identified as complaints patients and survivors would use acupuncture for (60.0%, 57.5%, and 47.5% respectively). For informal caregivers, 48.0% (26/54) expressed an interest in using acupuncture for their pain, stress and sleeping difficulties.Conclusions: This study indicates that many cancer patients, disease survivors and informal caregivers would accept acupuncture as a complementary therapy. They could further identify many symptoms they felt this therapy could relieve. This openness to acupuncture, and expressed preferences provide the foundations for this complementary therapy to be incorporated into holistic and supportive cancer care, both for patients and those supporting them.

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“…However, these opioid analgesics can cause several problems, including side-effects associated with opioids, excessive doses that increase abuse/addictions, accidental overdoses, and/or respiratory depression. 3 Nonpharmacologic interventions such as acupuncture are safer approaches to treating cancer-related pain. Some randomized controlled clinical trials showed that acupuncture can reduce cancer-related pain.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Overall, the data show that acupuncture therapy is safe and can provide clinically meaningful improvements when used in conjunction with standard therapy. 3 The International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) classified pain into nociceptive pain and neuropathic pain. In cancer-related pain, nociceptive pain can occur as a result of invasive stimuli from the primary tumor and/or from metastatic lesions that invade or compress surrounding structures, pathologic fractures, or bleeding in tumors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Roles of Battlefield Acupuncture and Electroacupuncture in a Patient with Cancer-Related Pain

Irman

Helianthi

2020

Medical Acupuncture

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Background: Pain is one of the most-frightening complications of cancer and disrupts quality of life. Cancerrelated pain can be caused by primary cancer itself, metastases that occur, and interventions to treat cancer. Almost all cancer-related pain is pain with moderate-to-severe intensity. Thus, cancer-related pain management often involves administration of opioid analgesics. However, administration of opioid analgesics can cause side-effects that cause new problems for these patients. Several studies have shown that acupuncture can reduce cancer-related pain and data show that acupuncture therapy is safe and can provide clinically meaningful improvements when used in conjunction with standard therapy. Case: A 72-year-old female patient had pain throughout her body since 1 month prior to before being admitted to the hospital. She was unable to sleep at night often cried because she was unable to stand the pain. This was reduced by morphine 3 • /day. Because of the drug's side-effects, she slept more often during the day, could not sleep at night, and was constipated. She also had breakthrough pain, on an average of 2-3 • /day. She had a history of malignancy in the pleura, liver, lungs, and cervix. There was an increase in some tumor markers. Her baseline numeric rating scale (NRS) assessment was 4 with an oral morphine slow-release tablet 3 • 15 mg/day. Acupuncture therapy was performed at Battlefield Acupuncture points of the right ear and body acupuncture points (LI 4, LI 11, ST 36, SP 6, and LR 3) was treated with 3-Hz continuous-wave electroacupuncture for 30 minutes at each session. During this therapy, there were reductions in pain (baseline NRS 4 became 2), need for morphine, morphine side-effects, and frequency of breakthrough pain. There were no significant side-effects due to acupuncture. Conclusions: Acupuncture is an effective and safe therapeutic option for reducing cancer pain with minimal side-effects. Acupuncture can enable a reduced need for narcotic analgesics.

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Acupuncture for Cancer Pain and Symptom Management in a Palliative Medicine Clinic

Cited by 40 publications

References 33 publications

Acupuncture as a Treatment Within Integrative Health for Palliative Care: A Brief Narrative Review of Evidence and Recommendations

Acupuncture as a Treatment Within Integrative Health for Palliative Care: A Brief Narrative Review of Evidence and Recommendations

Acupuncture as a complementary therapy for cancer care: acceptability and preferences of patients and informal caregivers

The Roles of Battlefield Acupuncture and Electroacupuncture in a Patient with Cancer-Related Pain

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