Acupuncture – a service covered by statutory and private health insurance
Since 2007, all German statutory health insurers have paid for acupuncture to treat chronic pain in the lumbar spine and osteoarthritis of the knee. Many private health insurers pay for acupuncture for a wide range of indications.
Established indications for acupuncture
- Diseases of the musculoskeletal system
- Cervical spine syndrome (neck pain), thoracic/lumbar spine syndrome (back pain)
- Shoulder-arm syndrome, periarthritis humeroscapularis, frozen shoulder
- Epicondylopathy (tennis elbow, golfer’s elbow)
- Hip osteoarthritis (hip complaints), knee osteoarthritis, knee pain
- Achillodynia (Achilles tendon pain), tendinopathy (all kinds of tendon complaints)
- Sudeck’s disease (complex regional pain syndrome), fibromyalgia
- Muscle pain and tension of all kinds
- Neurological diseases
- Headaches
- Migraine
- Trigeminal neuralgia
- Atypical facial pain
- Intercostal neuralgia
- Post-herpetic (shingles) neuralgia
- Phantom pain
- Stump pain
- Polyneuropathy
- Paraesthesia (numbness and paralysis)
- Psychological and psychosomatic disorders
- Addictions
- States of exhaustion, psycho-vegetative syndrome, restlessness, detoxification and supportive therapy for addictions (e.g. alcohol, nicotine, medicines)
- Exam anxiety
- Cardiovascular diseases
- Functional heart complaints
- Gastrointestinal diseases
- Functional gastrointestinal disorders, hiccups, nausea, irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, diarrhoea
- Respiratory and ear, nose and throat diseases
- Allergic bronchial asthma, hay fever, rhinitis, sinusitis, tonsillitis, tinnitus
- Skin diseases
- Atopic dermatitis (eczema), urticaria (itchy wheals), inflammatory skin diseases, furunculosis, acne vulgaris, psoriasis
- Other
- Tumour pain
- Postoperative pain
- Post-traumatic pain
- Toothache
- Immune disorders