Current Status and Future Prospects of Acupuncture in Clinical Practice Guidelines

Collaboration with Medical Societies and the Development of Specialized Acupuncturists

Abstract

This symposium aimed to support the further dissemination of acupuncture as an integrative treatment and foster stronger collaborations across medical specialties. It provided a comprehensive overview of the current status and challenges of acupuncture treatment within domestic clinical practice guidelines, emphasizing strategies to enhance the evidence base and integrate acupuncture into guidelines across various medical fields. Presentations were delivered by Yuse Okawa, Sumire Ishiyama, Go Horibe, Hiroshi Taniguchi, and Chihiro Itoh. In the first half of the symposium, Okawa discussed the current state of acupuncture recommendations within clinical guidelines, highlighting the specific content, as well as existing limitations and areas for improvement. Ishiyama then examined the role of acupuncture in headache management and its potential as part of multidisciplinary care, underscoring the integration of acupuncture into team-based medical practice. Horibe emphasized the significance of the recent inclusion of acupuncture for peripheral facial palsy as a "weak recommendation" in guidelines, and he explored future directions for evidence development in this field. Taniguchi focused on guidelines for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), presenting foundational research on acupuncture's physiological effects and clinical efficacy for IBS, alongside the limitations and areas that require further investigation. Finally, Itoh examined the position of acupuncture in the management of overactive bladder, noting recent amendments to the guidelines that list acupuncture as "other conservative therapy" and stressing the need for further evidence to strengthen this recommendation. Collectively, these presentations demonstrated an upward trend in the recognition of acupuncture within clinical guidelines, while also identifying critical areas for improvement in evidence quality and discussing strategies for acupuncture's inclusion in other guideline fields.