Casanova Emanuela, et al.. Japanese Acupuncture and Moxibustion, 2007; Vol.3(1): 1-3

Global Communication

Current state of acupuncture treatment in Italy
CASANOVA Emanuela 1) TAKEUCHI Yoshiomi 2)
1) Maggiore Hospital. Rehabilitation Ward, Bologna, Italy
2) Keizan Clinic of Acupuncture, Kyoto, JapanAbstract
Every year 4% of Italians receive a treatment of acupuncture and the doctors, who are practicing as acupuncturists, are approximately 15,000. From a legal point of view, only medical doctors can practice acupuncture in Italy.
The formal education in East Asian traditional medicine consists of a 4-year postgraduate course and there are 13
schools of acupuncture in the major cities of Italy. Acupuncture is practiced in approximately 122 public pain centers, and the national health insurance system covers acupuncture treatment in those centers. The most common
conditions treated by acupuncture are rheumatic and musculoskeletal symptoms.
Key words: Acupuncture, ItalyⅠ．Introduction
In Europe acupuncture is often assimilated into a large
and heterogeneous category of treatments, the “so-called”
complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) or unconventional therapeutic methods1). The reviewed information indicates that the rapid growth in the popularity of acupuncture and CAM in the last 15 years is acommon denominator in European countries. According
to the latest data, 9 million of Italians have experienced
CAM. In detail, they have been submitted to homeopathy (5.8％), massage (20.5%), herb therapy (10.5%) andacupuncture (5.8%).
Main indications for these therapies are musculoskeletal problems, allergic diseases, respiratory and gynecological conditions, neurological disorders (migraine,facial palsy and trigeminal neuralgia), psychologicalsymptoms and stress2). As revealed by a statistical survey of 1999, in the previous 1-2 years the percentage of
Italian people who underwent to acupuncture has been
2.9%. Besides, between 1991 (2.1%) and 1999 (2.9%) a
Corresponding author: Casanova Emanuela
Via Marchetti, 2 Bologna, 40137 Italia
E-mail: manusan@interfree.it

0.8% increase of this percentage has been reached3).
Nowadays every year 4% of Italians receive acupuncture. Medical doctors who are using acupuncture as oneof the therapeutic method are approximately 15,000 andacupuncture is practiced in approximately 122 public
pain centers, where the national health insurance systemcovers the expense of the treatment.
Ⅱ．The diffusion of acupuncture
Acupuncture gradually spread from China to the restof the world over the course of several centuries. Reportsof acupuncture were first brought back to the west by
Jesuit missionaries in the sixteenth century. Acupuncture
was practiced widely by French physicians by the latenineteenth century, and the scholar-diplomat Soulier De
Morant published an influential treatise on the subject. Agreat surge of interest in acupuncture followed President
Nixon’s visit to China in 1971, when a member of thepresident’s press corps was treated by acupuncture forappendicitis4).

2Casanova Emanuela, et al.. Japanese Acupuncture and Moxibustion, 2007; Vol.3(1): 1-3

During the last 20-30 years in Europe, as in all western countries, Oriental Medicine has been getting moreand more popular and widespread and in the 90’s tookroot. An exchange between the French school and Italianpractitioners of acupuncture and oriental medicine wasestablished and allowed a diffusion of these therapies inItaly, too. In fact, France has been essential to the development of acupuncture in Europe because of the linkage
to Vietnam as a former colony. In the 70’s the firstschools of oriental medicine were opened and in the 80’s
academic cooperation with Chinese Universities andother European schools, like the British ones, were established.
Only doctors can practice acupuncture and in the lastyears the medical practitioners who are enrolled inschool of oriental medicine have been notably increased.
Besides, the Government and the Ministry of Healthhave gradually recognized and enacted the education andthe practice of acupuncture. Consequently acupuncture
center located in public health services has multipliedand post-graduate master courses have established in theUniversities.
Ⅲ．The education in acupuncture
In Italy there are two types of post-graduate courses oforiental medicine; 1) Western reflex-based school and 2)
Traditional method-based school. The schools of acupuncture instituted in the 70’s or in the 80’s lasted in 3years, but nowadays in Italy, like in the other European
countries, the courses continue for 4 years. The Italianschools of acupuncture are included mostly in FISA
(Federazione Italiana delle Societa' di Agopuntura, Italian Federation of Acupuncture Societies) and are spreadall over the country (Bologna, Bari, Catania, Genova,Milano, Padova, Palermo, Roma, Salerno e Torino).
The courses of Oriental Medicine have the following
characteristics: Four-years-duration and at least 360
hours for theoretical and practical lectures lessons aiming to the traditional concepts of oriental medicine andto the recent acquisitions of acupuncture, a final test at
the end of every year and a thesis for the degree examination.
Furthermore, in the middle of the 80’s even the Universities of Medicine perceived the necessity to deepen
the knowledge of oriental medicine and master courses
for medical doctors were instituted in some of the more
important universities (Chieti, Ancona, Pavia, Brescia,“Statale” of Milano and “La Sapienza” di Roma). Besides, sometime local departments of the National Healthsystem (ASL) organize short courses of oriental medicine.
The private schools of oriental medicine located inBari, Bologna, Milano, Napoli and Roma have recently
established 2-years-course of Traditional Medicinebased herb therapy, rehabilitation, massage, Taichi andother methods of physical training.
In Italy there are a lot of organizations of acupuncture
practitioners, but an official society doesn’t exist.
Ⅳ．The practice of acupuncture
According to a survey conducted by FISA in 2000,
there is a relative significant difference between Northand South of Italy in the amount of acupuncture treatments provided in public hospital and in private centres.5)
Patients started to receive acupuncture without chargeof the expenses in many national hospitals from the 90’s,
but in some public centres the oriental medical therapies
begun to be provided even in the 70’s (Civitanova
Marche, Ravenna, the Orthopaedic Institute of Naples
and Forlanini Hospital of Roma). As stated by this survey, the percentage of patients who receive acupuncture
in local departments of the National Health System is5%.
The public and private centres where acupuncture isprovided have been estimated as 122. The doctors whoare practicing in these centres have been rated as 261.
The data collected between 1995 and 1997 in the public centre of Civitanova Marche showed that symptoms
treated by acupuncture were: rheumatism (48%), respiratory and otolaryngological diseases (34%), psychiatricand neurological disorders (32%), diseases of the digestive system (32%), cardiovascular diseases (27%) andurologic (19%), dermatologic (16%), gynecologicaldisorders (14%).
Ⅴ．Conclusion
We can conclude that during the last ten years thepopularity of acupuncture has been growing quickly inEurope and in other western countries. In Italy, 4% of
the population underwent to acupuncture every year.
Between 1991 and 1999, 0.8% increase of this percentage has been reached. The practitioners are approximate-3Casanova Emanuela, et al.. Japanese Acupuncture and Moxibustion, 2007; Vol.3(1): 1-3

ly 15,000 and the public and private centres where acupuncture is provided are about 122. The most treateddiseases
arerheumatism,respiratory
andotolaryngological diseases, psychiatric and neurologicaldisorders, diseases of the digestive system, cardiovascular diseases and urologic, dermatologic gynecologicaldisorders.
(This paper was republished from the Journal of Japan
Society of Acupuncture and Moxibustion (JJSAM), 56(4), 2006. It was modified and translated.)
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