Scalp acupuncture treatment protocol for anxiety disorders: a case report

Anxiety disorders are among the most common psychiatric illnesses, and acupuncture treatment is widely accepted in the clinic without the side effects seen from various medications. We designed a scalp acupuncture treatment protocol by locating two new stimulation areas. The area one is between Yintang (M-HN-3) and Shangxing (DU-23) and Shenting (DU-24), and the area two is between Taiyang (M-HN-9) and Tianchong (GB-9) and Shuaigu (GB-8). By stimulating these two areas with high-frequency continuous electric waves, remarkable immediate and long-term effects for anxiety disorders have been observed in our practice. The first case was a 70-year-old male with general anxiety disorder (GAD) and panic attacks at night. The scalp acupuncture treatment protocol was applied with electric stimulation for 45 minutes once every week. After four sessions of acupuncture treatments, the patient reported that he did not have panic attacks at night and he had no feelings of anxiety during the day. Follow-up 4 weeks later confirmed that he did not have any episodes of panic attacks and he had no anxiety during the day since his last acupuncture treatment. The second case was a 35-year-old male who was diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with a history of providing frontline trauma care as a Combat Medics from the Iraq combat field. He also had 21 broken bones and multiple concussions from his time in the battlefield. He had symptoms of severe anxiety, insomnia, nightmares with flashbacks, irritability, and bad temper. He also had chest pain, back pain, and joint pain due to injuries. The above treatment protocol was performed with 30 minutes of electric stimulation each time in combination with body acupuncture for pain management. After weekly acupuncture treatment for the first two visits, the patient reported that he felt less anxious and that his sleep was getting better with fewer nightmares. After six sessions of acupuncture treatments, the patient completely recovered from PTSD, went back to work, and now lives a healthy and happy family life. The above cases and clinical observation show that the scalp acupuncture treatment protocol with electric stimulation has a significant clinic outcome for GAD, panic disorder and PTSD. The possible mechanism of action of scalp acupuncture on anxiety disorder may be related to overlapping modulatory effects on the cortical structures (orbitofrontal cortex [OFC]) and medial prefrontal cortex [mPFC]) and subcortical/limbic regions (amygdala and hippocampus), and biochemical effect of acupuncture through immunohistochemistry (norepinephrine, serotonin) performed directly to the brain tissue for anxiety disorders.