Research
UTS Traditional Chinese Medicine sits within the School of Medical and Molecular Biosciences, and undertake a wide scope of teaching and research activities relating to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) including experimental work into diabetes and metabolic syndrome, the physiological effects of LASER and acupuncture, TCM health informatics and TCM theory.
It also undertake a number of human clinical trials in relation to acupuncture for pain and musculoskeletal disorders, LASER for arthritis, acupuncture for depression and post traumatic stress disorder. In addition a number of staff members are associated with the National Institute of Complementary Medicine and are undertaking Chinese medicine research in conjunction with the Institute.
Examples of UTS TCM research projects include:
Acupuncture for Depression
A clinical trial was undertaken to investigate the effectiveness of treating depression with acupuncture. The aim of this trial was to increase the understanding of how acupuncture can be used in combination with drug therapy to treat depression. It is hoped that this in turn may lead to a better understanding of how drug dependency and side effects can be reduced. Interim results indicate that subjects taking SSRI’s who undertake a course of 12 acupuncture treatments are experiencing statistically significant reductions in their level of depression. Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) scores in the treatment group on average improved 15.5 points compared to the average improvement in the wait list group of only 0.83 points. The trial phase of this project is now complete.
Acupuncture for Pain
A series of pain threshold studies were taken to address basic issues associated with acupuncture. Past studies examined whether the site of needling and addition of needle manipulation are important, whether the needling both sides of the body have a significant effect on pain threshold and whether electroacupuncture is more effective than manual acupuncture. A pilot study for the effect of acupuncture on “tennis elbow” is currently underway.
Acupuncture for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
A collaborative project with the NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors. The aim of the study is to clinically evaluate the effectiveness of acupuncture treatment for chronic pain, depression and anxiety in a group of survivors of torture and refugee trauma from a variety of cultural backgrounds, who suffer from post traumatic stress symptomatology due to exposure to imprisonment, torture, war and other human rights violations in the context of organized violence. This project is ongoing since 2009.
LASER and Osteoarthritis of the Knee
A project has been started to evaluate the effectiveness of LASER acupuncture on osteoarthritic knee pain in a randomised, double blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial. The study aims to determine the effective of a specific LASER protocol in clinical practice. The trial phase is due to commence in 2010.
Acupuncture Health Informatics
In 1998, UTS imitated the development of an Acupuncture Patient Database to measure clinical morbidity (the prevalence of disease) and patient demographics. Aggregated and de-identified data are used to inform teaching practices, research programs, clinical marketing and policy. As of 2009, data relating to 9300 patients, 48,450 treatments and 94,195 reported symptoms has been collated which shows the most common presentation of reasons for encounter as defined in the International Classification of Primary Care.
