Effect of Acupuncture Treatment on the Psychological Problem of a Patient with Cervical Dystonia

Abstract

We gave acupuncture treatment to a patient with cervical dystonia caused by typical neck movement and a psychological problem. We investigated the effect of acupuncture treatment on the psychological problem using the Tsui modified score and five psychological tests at the first session of acupuncture treatment and after six months acupuncture treatment. The problems revealed by the psychological tests in the first session of acupuncture treatment were as follows: 1) the patient had difficulty to recognize her psychological problem, and 2) she had few psychological complaints but many physical complaints such as abnormal neck posture. We think that she represented the psychological complaint as physical complaints. The acupuncture treatment improved the physical factors, such as the neck posture, and the psychological factors, such as as reduction of excessive effort and substantial judgement. The results suggest that our acupuncture treatment improved not only the physical problem of cervical dystonia, but also the psychological problem caused by cervical dystonia.