Acupressure

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The acupressure (from latin acus "needle" and premere "push"), Japanese Shiatsu (指圧), also called acupuncture, is a prophylactic and therapeutic applied medical treatment is applied at the obtuse on the body pressure at specific points. The thumb, ball of the hand, elbow, knee, foot or technical aids are used to exert the pressure. It is a healing method that is used in particular in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and Japanese medicine. In addition to various massage techniques and chiropractic methods, it is also part of the Chinese Tuina massage .

application areas

Acupressure is recommended for a very wide range of diseases, complaints and problems. What is unusual here is that it can be used for psychological complaints as well as for physical complaints. It is recommended for psychological problems , acute and chronic pain , allergies , paresthesia , sleep disorders , cramps , digestive disorders and problems with the circulatory system. It is not recommended (for the exclusive treatment of) obsessive-compulsive disorder , depression , thoughts of suicide, and chronic fatigue .

Overall, acupressure should activate the body's self-healing powers. As a rule, precautionary use is recommended instead of symptom-related treatment. In addition, cooperation with conventional medical treatment is often recommended.

effect

Acupressure assumes the existence of meridians and tsubos, but these cannot be combined with modern medical knowledge. If an effect occurs, the mechanism is therefore unclear or is based on the placebo effect .

A systematic review examined the effectiveness of Shiatsu and acupressure, as both methods are very similar. The work found no evidence of the effectiveness of Shiatsu, for which far fewer studies were available, but of acupressure for pain, nausea, vomiting and sleep quality.

Another systematic review from 2011 examined 43 randomized, controlled trials for the treatment of various symptoms. Three studies showed an effect in treating menstrual pain. The evaluation of six studies also showed an effect on nausea and vomiting . An effect on muscle pain , dyspnea , sleep disorders and fatigue was also found. The authors themselves suspect a strong bias in the reviewed studies, which could have distorted the results.

A 2011 Cochrane review of acupuncture and acupressure concluded that acupressure could help relieve labor pain, but the evidence does not show any clear benefit.

The Cochrane Collaboration reviewed several studies on the effectiveness of acupressure against nausea and vomiting through the use of the recommended P6 acupuncture point. They found a medium effect size against postoperative vomiting , but not against postoperative nausea.

In a meta-study in which 39 studies were evaluated, an effectiveness of medium effect size of acupressure against anxiety in adults before an operation or treatment could be determined.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christina Mildt: Practice Acupressure. Stuttgart 2012, p. 5. (GoogleBooks)
  2. ↑ Michael Gach, Beth Henning: Acupressure for emotional problems. New York 2004, p. 11. (GoogleBooks)
  3. ↑ Christina Mildt: Practice Acupressure. Stuttgart 2012, p. 5. (GoogleBooks)
  4. ↑ N. Robinson, A. Lorenc, X. Liao: The evidence for Shiatsu: a systematic review of Shiatsu and acupressure. In: BMC complementary and alternative medicine. Volume 11, 2011, p. 88, doi: 10.1186 / 1472-6882-11-88 . PMID 21982157 , PMC 3200172 (free full text) (review).
  5. ^ EJ Lee, SK Frazier: The efficacy of acupressure for symptom management: a systematic review. In: Journal of pain and symptom management. Volume 42, Number 4, October 2011, pp. 589-603, doi: 10.1016 / j.jpainsymman.2011.01.007 . PMID 21531533 , PMC 3154967 (free full text) (review).
  6. ↑ Caroline A. Smith, Carmel T Collins, Caroline A Crowther, Kate M Levett: Acupuncture or acupressure for pain management in labor . In: Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews . No. 7 , 2011, p. CD009232 , doi : 10.1002 / 14651858.CD009232 , PMID 21735441 .
  7. ↑ A. Lee, SKC Chan, LTY Fan: Stimulation of the wrist acupuncture point PC6 for preventing postoperative nausea and vomiting. In: Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Issue 11, 2015, Art. No .: CD003281. doi: 10.1002 / 14651858.CD003281.pub4
  8. ↑ DW Au, HW Tsang, PP Ling, CH Leung, PK Ip, WM Cheung: Effects of acupressure on anxiety: a systematic review and meta-analysis. In: Acupuncture in Medicine . Volume 33, number 5, October 2015, pp. 353-359, doi: 10.1136 / acupmed-2014-010720 . PMID 26002571 .