Development trend and current situation of acupuncture-moxibustion indications

Abstract To discuss the dominant diseases of acupuncture and moxibustion and their trend in development. At present, the concepts of acupuncture and moxibustion disease spectrum include efficacy-based graded disease spectrum of acupuncture and moxibustion and evidence-based graded disease spectrum of acupuncture and moxibustion. Hence, the ranges of dominant diseases are various in terms of the different concepts. Regarding the efficacy-based graded disease spectrum, 81 dominant diseases are included. In accordance with the principle of disease spectrum of evidence-based acupuncture and moxibustion, the articles of systematic reviews and meta-analysis of acupuncture and moxibustion published in Chinese medical journals were retrieved, and thus 68 dominant diseases of acupuncture and moxibustion were collected. In view of the retrieval result and the effect characteristics of acupuncture and moxibustion, the authors believe that the following 4 aspects should be involved in the development of the dominant diseases of acupuncture and moxibustion, named (1) painful diseases, (2) neurological disorders, (3) mental, cognitive and affective diseases and (4) immune-endocrine disorders.