Acupuncture has been shows in numerous studies to aid a wide range of neurological and psychological conditions. Tourette syndrome treatment outcomes have been less researched, particularly in younger patients where fear of needles may be an issue.
Qihuang needle therapy involves a specialized needle, very select (i.e. fewer) acupuncture points and no needle retention. Points used in this study were GV 20, Yintang, UB 14, GB 20, then removed UB 14 and added UB 15, UB 18 and KD 7.
This study reports that the 10 year old patient with 2 year history of motor tics responded well on the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale (from 52 to 14) and had no recurrence at the 6 month follow up. This was after just 14 sessions and after pharmacological therapy and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) treatments had failed.