Acupuncture: How Might the Mechanisms of Treatment Have Contributed to the Diagnosis of "Patterns" and Pattern-based Treatments - Speculations on the Evolution of Acupuncture as a Therapy. Implications for Researchers

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Acupuncture is a complex intervention that manifests varied theories, treatment methods, diagnostic methods and diagnostic patterns. Traditionally based systems of acupuncture (TBSAs) often have their own diagnostic approaches and patterns. Despite the wide variety that can be found amongst TBSAs, is it possible that they share a common background in clinical observation and practice? Research has shown that multiple physiological pathways and mechanisms can be triggered by different acupuncture techniques and methods. It is highly likely that clinicians will have observed some of the effects of these responses and used those observations as feedback to help construct the patterns of diagnosis and their associated treatments. This review briefly examines this possibility. Pattern identification will have developed out of a complex interaction of factors that include; theories current at the time of their development, historical theories, personal choices and beliefs, training, practice methods, clinical observations and the natural feedback that comes from observing how things change once the treatment is applied. Researchers investigating TBSAs and pattern identification need to be more explicit about the systems they have investigated in order to understand the biological basis of pattern identification and their treatments.