Behandlung von psychischen Traumata mit Akupunktur

Mental trauma can be psychologically debilitating and even lead to posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and chronic pain disorders.

The few evidence-based trauma treatments currently available, such as EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitation and Reprocessing) and cognitive behavioral therapy, are usually in short supply or associated with very long wait times. Acupuncture for the treatment of psychological trauma has been increasingly researched in recent years, but only as a non-specific therapy.

In the EX.TRACT method presented here, acupuncture is combined with exposure and psychotherapy in five treatment steps.

In history taking, the central traumatizing situation is identified, which is then used as a visualization in the acupuncture therapy.

During the acupuncture session, after the overall constitution has been treated, the patient is instructed to imagine the traumatizing situation several times. Each time, the physical discomfort that occurs is immediately resolved with the appropriate acupuncture points. Afterwards, the feelings that arise from re-imagining the traumatizing situation, such as fear, anger and rage, sadness, disgust, and exhaustion, are treated.

Each of these feelings can be immediately extinguished with the appropriate acupuncture points on the corresponding meridian. Thus, after a few repetitions, all negative feelings associated with the trauma are dissolved and an emotionally neutral episodic memory of the event remains.

The aim of the therapy is to erase the negative feelings in the limbic system so that the event is only stored in the episodic memory and the symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder are reduced or even eliminated.

This article is the first of a series of case reports that highlight the potential of the EX.TRACT method. The series starts with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which is followed by issues on postpartum depression, chronic pain, and posttraumatic embitterment disorder (PTED).