Traditional Chinese Medicine for treatment of cerebral palsy

The objective of this study was to systematically evaluate the effects of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) therapy including acupuncture, tu'ina, oral herbal medicine, herbal bathing, and collateral-channels conduct therapy for treating children with cerebral palsy (CP).
We included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on TCM for children with CP. We searched the China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Database for Chinese Technical Periodicals, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, databases of Chinese biomedical journals/Chinese Medical Current Contents, Wan Fang Data, PubMed, MEDLINE, Embase, and the Cochrane Library until the end of July 2009, and searched the reference list of retrieved papers. Data were extracted by 1 author and checked for validation by another author, and data were analyzed using RevMan 4.3.2. Only one meta-analysis was performed due to the heterogeneity among the trials.

Part of having cerebral palsy means finding new ways to cope with various physical symptoms, some of which acupuncture is believed to remedy.
The most comprehensive study of acupuncture and children was funded by the National Institutes of Health and performed by the University of Arizona Pediatrics Department. The study involved several children; its goal was to determine to what extent muscle hypertonicity could be eliminated.
One child in the study had severely tight muscles that were impeding the development of his internal organs. The 5-year-old had limited vocal ability, and his affect was more or less flat. He underwent acupuncture at seven channels on his lower and upper extremities; the treatment lasted a few hours. Researchers noted a decrease in hypertonicity that was short in duration.
After a second treatment, the child began crying at the insertion of the needles, and researchers removed the needles.
Auricular treatment without needles was implemented, and it was noted that his muscles were not as hard as they were before treatment. In this treatment, the points were stimulated by an ear probe. By the end of 16 treatments with the ear probe, the child’s limb thrusting was reduced by 50 percent.
Another randomized controlled trial at the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center indicated that acupuncture may provide relief to children with spastic cerebral palsy. The evaluation-blind trial assessed children ages 12 to 72 months with spasticity.
After 16 weeks of acupuncture treatment, one group of children displayed improvement in their gross motor functionality that exceeded researcher’s expectations. The conclusion of the study is that acupuncture can, if done properly and early, help children improve their ability to function physically, but further study is needed.

One area of promise is in the area of laser acupuncture, which targets points by using low-energy, pulsating laser beams instead of traditional needles.