Acupuncture treatment: side effects and complications reported by Swedish physiotherapists

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In 1984 the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare approved of acupuncture to be used for pain alleviation by registered medical staff. Acupuncture is considered a relatively safe method of treatment with few side effects. However, reports on complications and side effects do exist.1–5 The side effects described range from minor events to lifethreatening complications and the number of documented cases in relation to the number of practitioners is very low, especially if a comparison is made with traditional pharmacological therapy.3 Inspired by an English survey, in which volunteers were asked to report the incidence of adverse effects in their acupuncture practice,6 we performed a pilot study in 1998.7 Since empirical data suggest that there are positive side effects associated with acupuncture, we decided to study these as well as the negative side effects. The pilot study included 55 physiotherapists (PTs) who during a period of 4 weeks performed 2793 treatments and registered all the positive and negative side effects and complications that occurred in relation to the acupuncture treatments.5 Positive side effects were reported in approximately 21% of the treatments. The most frequent positive side effect was a pleasant feeling of fatigue. Negative side effects were observed in 16% of the treatments – bleeding and bruises being the most frequent ones. No life-threatening complications were reported.7 The pilot study included a limited number of registrations during a limited time, but was the first study to report on positive side