Hi, more research is being done with complementary and alternative medicine. There is some research with Vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease patients to suggest that accupuncture may reduce anxiety and depression. Other research shows that improvements may be seen in verbal skills, cognition, motor coordination and overall condition.

In order to explore this as an option for your loved one with dementia, you need to speak to the physician involved to see if it may be appropriate.

Good luck!! Sue

Hi R. Taylor: Unfortunately, the answer would be "not very well equipped" for many physicians but some specialists who do some of the assessment testing may be open minded. Good point, Sue

Arthur, the research on acupuncture is quite clear regarding pain relief, which is why it is being used in hospitals and other conventional settings where chronic pain is a sustaining and expensive problem. Research on other conditions, like alzheimers, so far as I can tell, is as you suggest slim to none. But that really means "un-researched" rather than research=fail. NIH/NCCAM is funding new studies to look at the underlying biologic/nervous systems that appear to be in play.

NCCAM has funded research into acupuncture for many years, in particular through the work of the University of Maryland Medical School's Center for Integrative Medicine. This clinical and research center works within the evidence base, and in fact helps establish it. This page has some info on its acupuncture focus, part of broader integrative and medical practices (they have not looked at alzheimers that I know of).

http://www.compmed.umm.edu/integrative/serviced_desc_acupuncture.asp

Otherwise, a friend of mine who was CEO of a major US medical system took some docs to China to consult with US firms interested in setting up conventional western care centers. While there they witnessed a C-section, in which the mother had no anesthesia, but was treated with acupuncture. Something is at work. let's find out what.

My answer also, as a physician who is trained in acupuncture, is that the results of acupuncture are rather well documented, though no one really has any idea of why it does what it does. I.e., raise endorphin levels, etc. Moreover, strangely a study done at Brooklyn college, by the NIH's authority on acupuncture, Dr. Yoshiaki Omura, showed that even in case that respond well to acupuncture, it does NOT have any effect when performed in a Faraday cage! As to the application about which the subject revolved, Alzheimer's is concerned, I would expect that as Susan said so well, it might be of some help with the peripheral effects of the disease, but I doubt that anyone would suggest it as any kind of cure.