Can Acupuncture Help Combat Opioid Crisis?

Marine veteran Jeff Harris was among the first to sign up when the Providence VA hospital started offering acupuncture for chronic pain.

"I don't like taking pain medication. I don't like the way it makes me feel," he said.

Harris also didn't want to risk getting addicted to heavy-duty prescription painkillers.

Although long derided as pseudoscience and still questioned by many medical experts, acupuncture is increasingly being embraced by patients and doctors, sometimes as an alternative to the powerful painkillers behind the nation's opioid crisis.

The military and Veterans Affairs medical system has been offering acupuncture for pain for several years, some insurance companies cover it and now a small but growing number of Medicaid programs in states hit hard by opioid overdoses have started providing it for low-income patients.

Ohio's Medicaid program recently expanded its coverage after an opioid task force urged state officials to explore alternative pain therapies.

"We have a really serious problem here," said Dr. Mary Applegate, medical director for Ohio's Medicaid department. "If it's proven to be effective, we don't want to have barriers in the way of what could work."

More here