The term ‘acupuncture’ derives from the two Latin words: ‘acus’ (needle) and ‘pungere’ (to pierce). It is an ancient Chinese therapeutic technique, which involves the placement of solid needles in precise locations in the body to:

• Improve symptoms.

• ‘Cure’ disease.

• Promote health.

Strong sensory stimulation involving needling and scarification techniques have been used to reduce pain throughout history. The exact date of origin of the first use of acupuncture in China is somewhat uncertain, with stone needles, or ‘bian shi’, being used originally in the stone ages. Bone needles have been found that date from the twenty-first to the sixteenth centuries BC in the Xia Dynasty.

Over the last 30 years there has been an increasing interest in acupuncture in the West, with the use of fine disposable needles to help pain and non-pain conditions. This has been partly due to increasing disenchantment with drug therapy and its side effects (including mortality) and partly on account of an increasingly solid neurophysiological and clinical evidence base for its modes of action.

Despite the increasing acceptance of acupuncture among the public and the medical profession, many physicians still have considerable lack of objective information about acupuncture. The erroneous belief that it has no supporting scientific evidence base is still fairly widespread.