Advance Access Publication 10 January 2008 Review eCAM 2009;6(4)429–439 doi:10.1093/ecam/nem181 Pediatric Acupuncture: A Review of Clinical Research Jeffrey I. Gold1, Colette D. Nicolaou 2 , Katharine A. Belmont2, Aaron R. Katz3, Daniel M. Benaron3 and Wendy Yu4 1Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, 2Department of Anesthesiology Critical Care Medicine, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, 3Department of Hematology/Oncology, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and 4Eastern Center for Complementary Medicine, Inc., Los Angeles, CA, USA Practiced in China for more than 2000 years, acupuncture has recently gained increased attention in the United States as an alternative treatment approach for a variety of medical conditions. Despite its growing prevalence and anecdotal reports of success among pediatric populations, few empirically based studies have assessed the efficacy of acupuncture for children and adolescents. This article presents a review of the current literature, including a systematic appraisal of the methodological value of each study and a discussion of potential benefits and adverse effects of acupuncture. While acupuncture holds great promise as a treatment modality for diverse pediatric conditions, a significant amount of additional research is necessary to establish an empirical basis for the incorporation of acupuncture into standard care. Keywords: acupuncture – pediatrics Introduction Over the past several decades, the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has increased in the general population. Between 1990 and 1997, the percen- tage of American patients using alternative therapies grew considerably, from 34 to 42% (1). In 1999, more than 50% of physicians surveyed in the United States, Canada, Israel and England reported recommending CAM to their patients (1). Accordingly, many insurance providers, including managed care organizations, now offer reimbursement for CAM therapies (2,3). Among pediatric populations, CAM interventions such as homeopathy, naturopathy, acupuncture, chiropractic, herbal supplements, vitamin and mineral supplementation, macrobiotics and dietary modifications are reportedly For reprints and all correspondence: Jeffrey I. Gold, Ph.D., Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, Department of Anesthesiology Critical Care Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, 4650 Sunset Blvd. MS #12, Los Angeles, CA 90027-6062, USA. Tel: +1-323-361-6341; Fax: +1-323-361-1022; E-mail: jgold@chla.usc.edu used by 2% to 20–30% of patients (4–6). Higher rates have been reported among children with specific medical conditions, such as pediatric cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and cystic fibrosis, where 30–70% of patients employ CAM therapies (7,8). In response to its increasing popularity in both adult and pediatric populations, the National Institutes of Health has allocated a substantial amount of funding to the integration of CAM into mainstream medical practice through the creation of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM). During the 10-year period between 1992 and 2002, NCCAM funding increased by more than $100 million, from $2 million to $104.6 million (9). In 2006, NCCAM was allocated $122.7 million in order to fund CAM research (9). Within the repertoire of CAM strategies, acupuncture has emerged as a popular method of managing symptoms associated with a variety of medical conditions (10–12). Acupuncture is among the CAM therapies most fre- quently recommended by internists and family physicians (10,13–15) and is currently practiced in over 140 hospitals in the United States (16). 2008 The Author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.