07/23/2018
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As a doctor, I didn’t think much of acupuncture. Then the opioid crisis arrived.
As an emergency doctor, I routinely see patients who have come to the emergency room (ER) seeking relief from chronic pain. Pain is one of the most common reasons patients come to the ER. Yet, we as doctors are notoriously poor at managing it. We undertreat it, sometimes sending patients home from the hospital when they’re still very uncomfortable, even to the point of being unable to perform important daily tasks like cooking and cleaning.
Throughout my medical career, I had often heard of acupuncture as an alternative treatment for pain, but I had dismissed it. If there was any merit to it, I reasoned, then I would have learned about it in medical school. But I also knew that my patients deserved an effort on my part to find an alternative to opioids.
I was intrigued by the possibilities of acupuncture as an alternative, but uncomfortable recommending it to my patients, as it was outside the scope of my medical training. I was also concerned by the design and methodological issues of some pro-acupuncture studies, which made their conclusions less compelling. It was time to gain more insight into the world of alternative medicine. I picked up the phone and booked an acupuncture appointment...
*Please share this article with anyone that is experiencing chronic pain.*
https://qz.com/1264784/as-a-doctor-i-didnt-think-much-of-acupuncture-then-the-opioid-crisis-arrived/
