Psychische Traumatherapie mit akupunkturgestützter Exposition in drei Schritten: Ein neuartiges Behandlungsprotokoll und zwei Fallbeschreibungen

Abstract

IntroductionPosttraumatic stress disorder is not the only condition that may be triggered by psychological traumata, but depression or chronic pain disorder as well. Currently, medical treatment of these consequences is evidence based for the so called EMDR therapy, or cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) only. Other therapeutic methods being used so far lack evidence with regard to their effectiveness. The treatment of psychic traumata with acupuncture has barely been investigated. Therefore, differentiated methods are lacking.The method presented in this article introduces a novel approach for acupuncture treatment of psychic traumata. Three-step acupuncture is combined with psychotherapy. Treatment protocolDuring an initial discussion the focal traumatic situation is identified, afterwards serving as a mental picture, or imagination in progression of the acupuncture therapy.During the acupuncture session, the patient's general condition is taken care of as a first step. Subsequently he is guided to repeatedly imagine the traumatic situation, while being monitored continually for physical discomfort. If accurring, immediat dissolution is achieved using the respective points of acupuncture. The patient is then interviewed about the particular emotion giving rise to the recurring imagination of the traumatic situation. Any sentiment may be reduced to basic aversive emotions, as for example fear, anger and grief, disgust, and exhaustion. There is a channel assigned to each of these feelings. By targeting the respective points of acupuncture on this channel, feelings are erased immediately. As a result, the specific trauma including its negative sentiments are dissolved within no more than a few repetitions of the treatment. Finally, just an episodic memory of the incident remains, void of any emotional discomfort. ConclusionThe therapy aims to erase negative feelings in the limbic system, thereby restricting the incident to the episodic memory and eliminating the symptoms of the posttraumatic stress disorder.The following article also reports on two patients.