For several thousand years, acupuncture has been used in China to address a wide variety of medical complaints and conditions, as well as mental and spiritual ones. Involving the insertion of small, thin needles at various positions on the body, acupuncture has been explained by traditional practitioners as a way of accessing and manipulating a 'life-force energy' called qi.
Over the last half-century, western medical science has attempted to analyze acupuncture’s effects on the body and its efficacy in relieving pain, stress, depression, and other conditions. A team of researchers led by Michael Hollifield, M.D., compared a standardized protocol for administering acupuncture with a 'sham' version in the treatment of combat veterans diagnosed with PTSD.
Over a period of 4 years, the team recruited 93 individuals for the trial, with 85 being male and a majority in their mid- or late-30s. Participants had 15 weeks to receive 24 sessions, each involving 30 minutes of either active acupuncture or sham. The active group had needles placed at a series of points on the front and back of the body, while the sham group had needles inserted 2 cm away from these points, with very shallow insertion.
Assessments were made in the participants’ PTSD scores before, at the midpoint, and after the trial. Active acupuncture resulted in a larger reduction in PTSD symptom severity than sham, with the CAPS-5 score in the acupuncture group declining from over 36 to 18.6, compared to a decline from 36 to 26.7 in the sham group. The advantage of active acupuncture was described as 'statistically significant and clinically meaningful.'
Another measurement made during the trial suggested the advantage and possible viability of acupuncture for PTSD, with results indicating an enhanced extinction of learned fear in those who received active acupuncture. The team suggests acupuncture 'should be considered a rational choice' for treating PTSD, at least in combat veterans, due to the 'moderate to large clinical and biological effects' it showed in the trial.
