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Question 39: We were at the conference in Edmonton last weekend and would like to thank you for the wonderful talk you gave. I know it also helped our little boy alot to meet other children with Tourettes. We have heard that acupuncture has been very effective on some people with Tourettes and would like to know your feelings about this treatment, especially with children. Thanks again. J.V., AB, Canada.

Good evening J.V.:

I'm basically a "whatever works for you" kind of guy, but I never recommend a treatment until and/or unless there has been at least SOME research to suggest benefits and ensure that there are no damaging effects. Regarding acupuncture, there is only one study published on acupuncture in TS clients, and the results were very positive:

 

Wu, L, Li, H & Kang, L. (1996). 156 cases of Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome treated by acupuncture. Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 16(3), 211-213.

"The principle of clearing Yangming and nourishing the kidney and heart was adopted in the treatment of 156 cases of Gilles de la Tourette's Syndrome with acupuncture. The total effective rate was 92.3%, and the cure rate in children aged 11-15 years was markedly higher than that in children 6-10 years of age. Among 84 cases with abnormal EEG, the pathological waves in 54 disappeared or ameliorated after the treatment."

 

Results, particularly such suggestive ones, can only be taken VERY seriously if they are replicated -- that is, until other people conduct similar studies on acupuncture and get comparable results one must be skeptical. Otherwise one cannot be sure if the stated improvements really WERE due to the acupuncture treatment or something else entirely that occurred during the time period the person was receiving acupuncture treatment.

The single study cited above, for example, did not have a control (comparison) group -- it is simply a report on a number of individuals with TS who showed improvement following acupuncture treatment. In a design like this, any number of things could have led to the 'real' improvement in addition to or instead of the acupuncture treatment (medication change, stress reduction, natural waxing/waning of symptoms, placebo effect).

If I were to give an educated guess I would probably say that acupuncture, like massage meditation or chiropractic, may lead to a global reduction in stress (thus minimizing symptoms overall) and may also remove tension in certain problem areas of the body (thus minimizing symptoms associated with those particular areas because one is paying less attention to those areas). Beyond these nonspecific effects I see nothing in the treatment that could suggest acupuncture is a 'cure', however.

I hope this helps J.V. -- cheers!
Dr. Dunc.

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