In November 1997, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) endorsed acupuncture as a viable treatment option for various medical conditions, including nausea and pain.

The Consensus Development Conference on Acupuncture, sponsored by NIH's Office of Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the Office of Medical Applications Research, was held November 3-5 in Bethesda, MD. Approximately 600 attendees reviewed available research data on the efficacy of acupuncture. After hearing 23 presentations on acupuncture's origin, status and efficacy, a 12 member panel of non-federal, non-advocate medical experts drafted an 18 page Consensus Statement, announcing acupuncture as an effective treatment option and encouraging more research studies, reimbursement from insurance companies, and integrating acupuncture with conventional Western medicine.

The panel concluded that acupuncture is an effective treatment for conditions including postoperative pain, chemotherapy, pregnancy-related nausea and vomiting, immune enhancement, stroke rehabilitation, headache, menstrual cramps, tennis elbow, fibromyalgia, back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome and asthma. The panel was enthusiastic about acupuncture's cost effectiveness and minimal risks and side effects, especially compared to conventional medical treatments. The panel chair, David J. Ramsay, DM, DPhil, President of the University of Maryland, Baltimore, considered the conference "a very exciting beginning to better integration" with Western medicine, urging the public and health care professionals to take acupuncture seriously.

Critical issues raised at the conference included the difficulties in conducting acupuncture research within the conventional parameters of western scientific research, trying to fit a "round peg" (the energy based system of acupuncture) into a "square hole" (Western scientific research). Different methods, such as outcomes research and multicentered studies, were encouraged.

"We need more high quality research to validate what appears to be useful for millions of Americans who have used acupuncture. The challenge in studying acupuncture is to integrate the theory of Chinese medicine into the conventional Western biomedical research model and into the conventional health care arena," said Ramsay. The initially skeptical panel, rigorous in scrutinizing the data, received a standing ovation from the audience after delivering a positive and encouraging final statement.

The Consensus Statement will be available on hard copy within a few months and is currently available in draft form on the World Wide Web at http://consensus.nih.gov.