How many acupuncture treatments are needed to help back pain, IBS, anxiety?

Are you wondering how many treatments you will need start feeling better? A colleague of mine, Katie Alteneu, L.Ac., just wrote a great piece in Acupuncture Today on this topic. Link She surveyed Practicing Acupuncturists to determine avrage number of sessions to treat the following conditions:

• • Acute Back Pain: 3 – 4 treatments
  • Chronic Back Pain: 8 – 10 treatments
  • IBS / Digestive Symptoms: 6 – 8 treatments
  • Migraine Headaches: 8 – 10 treatments
  • Non-migraine Headaches: 4 – 6 treatments
  • Fatigue: 8 – 10 treatments
  • Insomnia: 8 – 10 treatments
  • Anxiety & Depression: 8 – 10 treatments
  • Chronic Injury or Pain: 10 – 12 treatments
  • Acute Injury or Pain: 3 – 4 treatments
  • Menopausal Symptoms: 8 – 10 treatments
  • Average treatment time overall: 8 treatments

In my practice I observe for most acute injuries patients feel better after 4-6 visits and for most chronic conditions 8-12 visits are necessary. Generally patients feel some relief after the first few visits but for pro-longed results continuity of care over the treatment period is essential. Generally the treatment period starts out with greater frequency and tapers down. This may look like 2 times a week for 2 weeks, weekly for 4 weeks and then bi-weekly for 2. Depending on a persons health goals and conditions, I also encourage people to view healing in 3 phases of care and I’ll be talking more about this in my next post, or you can check out the graphic on my website. Are you wondering about a condition not listed above, let’s talk.