The Practice of Acupuncture in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Acupuncture is one of the oldest and most commonly used complementary medical procedures in the World. Although it is not free from side effects, its use is becoming increasingly popular. The aims of this study were to describe the demographic characteristics of acupuncture users in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and their knowledge, attitude and experience regarding acupuncture, as well as to determine the common complaints for which patients seek help from acupuncture centers. A cross sectional study, which targeted patients who attended acupuncture centers in Riyadh city during the study's period. Most of the study participants were 21-40 years of age and about two third of them were males. The most common complaints that lead to acupuncture visits were joint pain (22.4%) and headache (18.6%). Dissatisfaction with medical treatment and side effects of medications were the major reasons, which led patients to seek cure from acupuncture therapy. About 65% of the patients heard of acupuncture from their families and friends. Pain sensation from needle puncture was the most noticed side effect (15.8%). Twenty-two patients completed treatment during the study period and out of those, twenty one patients claimed that they were successfully treated. The practice of acupuncture in Saudi Arabia is not well established. Pain seems to be the most common symptom that guides patients to attend acupuncture centers. There is need for education related to the appropriate use of acupuncture in Saudi Arabia. (JUMMEC 2010; 13(2): 93-101)

Utilization of Complementary Medicine by Pediatric Neurology Patients and Their Families in Saudi Arabia

“…In Saudi Arabia, the prevalence of dealing with CM was found to be 68%. Some studies suggest that many people used the CM after they were advised by their relatives or friends [5,6]. A study was conducted in Riyadh about the use of CM in adults with neurological diseases which revealed that cupping was the most utilized method (45.4%) followed by herbs (42.3%) [7].…”

Knowledge and Attitude of People towards using Complementary and alternative medicine in Riyadh city - A questionnaire study

“…Of late, the current practices like acupuncture were also launched in the Saudi community by entrenched private clinics (AlBedah et al, 2011;Sayed et al, 2014). Contradictory to Saudi Arabia, the frequently used CAM practices in the Western world (MO, 2010;Mansour et al, 2015) are relaxation technique, (MacLennan et al, 1996) chiropractic, massage and homeopathy (Eisenberg et al, 1993;Goldbeck-Wood et al, 1996) . The mistrust of some patients for conventional medicine, belief it has more side-effects and dissatisfaction with previously used conventional medicine that they had used previously had made them shift to CAM (Jaiswal et al, 2015;El-Gendy et al, 2005).…”