Medical acupuncture

Medical acupuncture was created for Western practitioners such as medical doctors, physiotherapists and osteopaths who wish to use acupuncture based practices without the lengthy study of traditional Chinese Medicine theory which is usually required for acupuncturists. This Western version of medical acupuncture is lesser known than the traditional Chinese, but is increasing in popularity as otherwise mainstream medical practitioners in the West are seeing and taking more interest in alternative medicine. Medical acupuncture can also be seen as an attempt by orthodox Western medicine to understand the effects of acupuncture from a western scientific perspective rather than within the paradigm of Chinese traditional medicine. The British Medical Acupuncture Society publishes a quarterly peer reviewed journal, Acupuncture in Medicine, which is listed on Medline and Index Medicus.