How many treatments?

The acupuncture treatment plan and your recovery – a research summary

Acupuncture’s efficacy depends on numerous factors. Of course, the accuracy of points your practitioner has chosen based on the specific, individualised diagnosis is definitely relevant, as is the depth and location of insertion, the amount of time the needles are retained, as well as your compliance with suggested dietary and lifestyle modifications to suit your condition.

Acupuncture “Dosage”

But what about frequency and “dosage”? Dosage is a large contributing factor that is integral in the overall efficiency and result that you get from your treatment plan. Contrary to popular belief, research has shown that to completely resolve a pain complaint, it is necessary to experience approximately 12 treatments.

Treatment plans are really important

If you have got half way through your recommended treatment plan and wandered off because you thought that it wasn’t necessary to continue, take a look at this systematic review research project. Produced in 2019, it is a systematic review – that means it collates all of the data for randomised controlled trials and tabulates it, then reports on the findings. This review covers 24 clinical trials with a total of over 3000 patients, all being studied to check how many treatments are necessary to facilitate the requested response, as well as the frequency.

Mythbusting Acupuncture

Myth 1: Acupuncture doesn’t work

But yes, it really does. There is a vast body of research examining and supporting the efficacy of acupuncture for a number of health conditions. At the time of writing there were 1,680 studies, meta-analyses, systematic reviews and literature review articles published in English , accessed via PubMed, a major scientific research platform,in the last 5 years. As part of our Western Science framework, non-English studies are not seen as viable evidence, so in this type of search it is impossible to tell how many other studies exist or are currently underway. Acupuncture is recommended by the Therapeutic Goods Administration as a viable alternative to opioid pain killers, and has gained public acceptance over the last 30 years. Organisations like the Acupuncture Now Foundation (ANF) have formed, and continue to bring amazing public awareness campaigns surrounding this useful and powerful health modality.

Myth 2: My acupuncturist is trying to get more money from me by asking me to come back.

Your acupuncturist is not a spa therapist for sporadic, intermittent luxury. They treat legitimate illnesses and are formally trained allied health professionals, and must be registered with the Australian government in order to practice. To fulfil registration requirements they must hold at least Bachelor level qualifications in their field. Many practitioners have more than one degree, so their level of knowledge may be quite advanced. Acupuncture is not learned through a weekend course. Degree programs are usually 4 years full time. Your acupuncturist is also likely to have a reasonable amount of clinical expertise that can only be obtained from experience healing conditions just like yours, probably with a similar issue that has similar reasons for being there.

How does your practitioner know?

So during that experience they will have learned how many treatments it usually requires to get the job done properly, and how often it needs to happen for maximum speed of healing. Their professional education and experience is absolutely to be taken seriously if you wish to achieve the results that you have requested by attending their practice in the first place. If you leave early, it’s not surprising that you won’t get the results that you want. Put in more simple terms, if you leave the race 2/3 in with 1/3 left to the finish line, you never get there. So your acupuncturist is trying to help you get well using their modality in the way that they are sure is going to work, rather than trying to fleece you for extra cash.

Myth 3: If it doesn’t heal you 100% straight away, it’s not worth persisting with.

Sadly, whilst acupuncture is a very powerful healing tool and occasionally you only need one treatment, many conditions require a longer duration to be effective. Devising regular treatments at the prescribed time to make a complete treatment plan is something that your acupuncturist understands in depth. We are busy practitioners and would like to help as many people as possible, so there is no reason for us to overprescribe treatments for you. If you have a long-term chronic condition, it may take several months to treat, likewise if you have an acute condition, it may be resolved more quickly with many treatments close together. The ancient classics, as well as modern research, both advise that regular treatments to the completion of the disease, are absolutely necessary.

If you have an ongoing health complaint and would like to try sticking to the full duration of a treatment plan as advised by your very qualified, registered and experienced health professional, please feel free to book a time online, text or call 0422 353 446

Reference list

Please take a look at these individual studies in the reference list and note that each of them contains a prescribed number of treatments for each condition, at specific intervals.

Zhao L, Chen J, Li Y, et al. The Long-term Effect of Acupuncture for Migraine Prophylaxis: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Intern Med. 2017;177(4):508–515. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.9378

Zhao, F.-Y., Fu, Q.-Q., Kennedy, G. A., Conduit, R., Zhang, W.-J., Wu, W.-Z., & Zheng, Z. (2021). Can acupuncture improve objective sleep indices in patients with primary insomnia? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Sleep Medicine, 80, 244–259. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2021.01.053

These references explain how dosage is really important in the efficient and efficacious administration of acupuncture both generally and in treatment for specific diseases.

Armour, M., Smith, C., Wang, L.-Q., Naidoo, D., Yang, G.-Y., MacPherson, H., Lee, M., et al. (2019). Acupuncture for Depression: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 8(8), 1140. MDPI AG. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm8081140

Yan-Jiao Chen, Cai-Tao Chen, Jia-Yuan Liu, Gabriel Shimizu Bassi, Yong-Qing Yang, “What Is the Appropriate Acupuncture Treatment Schedule for Chronic Pain? Review and Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials”, Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, vol. 2019, Article ID 5281039, 10 pages, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/5281039

Xu, G., Lei, H., Huang, L., Xiao, Q., Huang, B., Zhou, Z., … & Liang, F. (2022). The dose-effect association between acupuncture sessions and its effects on major depressive disorder: a meta-regression of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Affective Disorders.