The Treatment of Intractable Pain by Acupuncture

Abstract

(From a lecture transcript, not a formal paper.) While being sceptical of many of the claims made for the effective results produced in a high percentage of the cases in which acupuncture is used, the author — who is the Director of probably the largest centre for pain relief in Europe — advises that the results must be measured against those obtained with other available pain therapy techniques. The fact that acupuncture is included within the range of those techniques used at the Liverpool Centre shows that it is useful, but only in certain selected cases.He outlines the work of the Centre. Only patients who have been previously thoroughly investigated are seen. The pain syndromes treated can be classified into three main groups: one third of patients have intractable pain from inoperable cancer, two-thirds have severe pain of non-malignant origin. From the latter a third group of post-herpetic neuralgia is dealt with separately. Drug therapy forms a minor part of the work. The clinic is orientated towards active measures, e.g. intrathecal injection of phenol or alcohol, percutaneous cervical cordotomy, external electrical stimulation, internal spinal or epidural implanted electrode stimulation, etc. Because only really severe pain is treated at the Centre, acupuncture has a limited application. Only in a few isolated cases where other methods have failed has it been successful.His conclusions are that, whereas there is undoubted value in using acupuncture in such conditions as migraine and sciatica, it has only a small, but nonetheless useful, place in severe, intractable pain.