Theme Day TCM Research EN

The ELAMUS study evaluates the impact of a multimodal intervention based on Traditional Chinese Medicine—combining acupuncture and receptive music therapy—on sleep disturbances in older adults (≥70 years). It addresses challenges related to multimorbidity and polypharmacy in aging populations. Results on the intervention’s effectiveness in improving sleep quality will be presented and discussed.

Several studies on the effects of acupuncture/acupressure on neurological disorders have been conducted at the Institute for Social Medicine, Epidemiology, and Health Economics at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. This presentation introduces some of these studies and discusses specific aspects of the trial conduct

Over the past years, there has been a growing interest in integrating complementary and alternative medical approaches into conventional surgical care. Among these, acupuncture has shown promising potential to support perioperative management—particularly in areas such as pain control, nausea reduction, and postoperative recovery. In our department, we sought to systematically evaluate the role of acupuncture in the surgical setting, aiming to identify evidence-based applications, assess clinical feasibility, and explore patient outcomes.

Acupuncture efficacy cannot be attributed to needling alone but arises from a multifactorial interaction of expectancy, somatosensory input, and contextual cues. Converging psychobiological evidence indicates that verbal suggestions, sensory stimulation, and features of the therapeutic encounter engage cognitive and affective processes that modulate not only symptoms but also autonomic, endocrine, and immune pathways. Findings from placebo and open-label placebo research further demonstrate that expectancy formation, previous experience, and ritualized treatment procedures can potentiate clinical outcomes across a range of conditions. This lecture synthesizes experimental and clinical data to delineate how contextual and embodied mechanisms contribute to acupuncture responses and to outline an evidence-informed framework for understanding its underlying mechanisms.