title: Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Acupuncture Therapy by Verbal Pain Scale in Patients with Abdominal Pain of Familial Mediterranean Fever.
abstract: In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of acupuncture therapy based on Verbal Pain Scale (VPS) scores in familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) patients admitted to the emergency department with attacks of abdominal pain. This observational study was conducted in Erzurum Regional Training and Research Hospital between August 2014 and December 2014. Twenty patients admitted to the emergency department with FMF attacks were included in the study. Acupuncture therapy was applied to three points including LI4 (Hegu), ST25 (Tianshu), and Ren12 (Zhongwan). The VPS test was applied to the patients before and after the treatment. Average VPS scores were found to be 8.45±0.75 before the treatment and 2.10±0.85 after the treatment. The difference of the VPS scores before and after treatment was statistically significant (p=0.001). To our knowledge, this is the first study evaluating the effectiveness of acupuncture therapy in the treatment of FMF attacks. Our results suggest that acupuncture therapy can be used as an effective treatment method in patients with FMF attacks.
authors: Emergency Medicine Clinic, Educational Research Hospital, Erzurum, Turkey. Electronic address: sinanbecel@gmail.com.
authors: Sinan
authors: S
authors: Becel
authors: Family Medicine Clinic, Sürmene State Hospital, Trabzon, Turkey.
authors: Yılmaz
authors: Y
authors: Sezgin
authors: Atatürk University, Research and Practice Center for Acupuncture and Complementary Therapy Modalities, Erzurum, Turkey.
authors: Fatih
authors: F
authors: Akçay
mesh_terms: D015746:Abdominal Pain / Q000628:therapy*; D015669:Acupuncture Points; D015670:Acupuncture Therapy; D000328:Adult; D010505:Familial Mediterranean Fever / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010147:Pain Measurement; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Verbal Pain Scale; acupuncture; familial Mediterranean fever; inflammatory bowel syndrome