In 2003, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a landmark study, titled Acupuncture: Review and Analysis of Reports on Controlled Clinical Trials listing “diseases and disorders that can be treated with acupuncture.” Below is an excerpt from the study. 

This study has found that the diseases or disorders for which acupuncture therapy has been tested in controlled clinical trials, reported in the recent literature, can be classified into the categories as shown below.

Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which acupuncture has been proved- through controlled trials-to be an effective treatment: 

• • Adverse reactions to radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy
  • Allergic rhinitis (incl. hay fever)
  • Biliary colic
  • Depression (incl. depressive neurosis and depression following stroke)
  • Dysentery, acute bacillary
  • Dysmenorrhoea, primary
  • Epigastralgia, acute (in peptic ulcer, acute and chronic gastritis, and gastrospasm)
  • Facial pain (incl. craniomandibular disorders)
  • Headache
  • Hypertension, essential
  • Hypotension, primary
  • Induction of labor
  • Knee pain
  • Leukopenia
  • Low back pain
  • Malposition of fetus, correction of
  • Morning sickness
  • Nausea and vomiting
  • Neck pain
  • Pain in dentistry (incl. dental pain, TMJ temporomandibular dysfunction)
  • Periarthritis of shoulder
  • Postoperative pain
  • Renal colic
  • Rheumatoid arthritis
  • Sciatica
  • Sprain
  • Stroke
  • Tennis elbow 

Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which the therapeutic effect of acupuncture has been shown but for which further proof is needed:

• • Abdominal pain (in acute gastroenteritis or due to gastrointestinal spasm)
  • Acne vulgaris
  • Alcohol dependence and detoxification
  • Bell’s palsy
  • Bronchial asthma
  • Cancer pain
  • Cardiac neurosis
  • Cholecystitis, chronic, with acute exacerbation
  • Cholelithiasis
  • Competition stress syndrome
  • Craniocerebral injury, closed
  • Diabetes mellitus, non-insulin-dependent
  • Earache
  • Epidemic haemorrhagic fever
  • Epistaxis, simple (without generalized or local disease)
  • Eye pain due to subconjunctival injection
  • Female infertility
  • Facial spasm
  • Female urethral syndrome
  • Fibromyalgia and fasciitis
  • Gastrokinetic disturbance
  • Gouty arthritis
  • Hepatitis B virus carrier status

• • Herpes zoster (human (alpha) herpesvirus 3)
  • Hyperlipaemia
  • Hypo-ovarianism
  • Insomnia
  • Labor pain
  • Lactation, deficiency
  • Male sexual dysfunction, non-organic
  • Ménière disease
  • Neuralgia, post-herpetic
  • Neurodermatitis
  • Obesity
  • Opium, cocaine and heroin dependence
  • Osteoarthritis
  • Pain due to endoscopic examination
  • Pain in thromboangiitis obliterans
  • Polycystic ovary syndrome (Stein-Leventhal syndrome)
  • Postextubation in children
  • Postoperative convalescence
  • Premenstrual syndrome
  • Prostatitis, chronic
  • Pruritus
  • Radicular and pseudoradicular pain syndrome
  • Raynaud syndrome, primary
  • Recurrent lower urinary-tract infection
  • Reflex sympathetic dystrophy
  • Retention of urine, traumatic
  • Schizophrenia
  • Sialism, drug-induced
  • Sjögren syndrome
  • Sore throat (incl. tonsillitis)
  • Spine pain, acute
  • Stiff neck
  • Temporomandibular joint dysfunction TMJ
  • Tietze syndrome
  • Tobacco dependence
  • Tourette syndrome
  • Ulcerative colitis, chronic
  • Urolithiasis
  • Vascular dementia
  • Whooping cough (pertussis) 

Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which there are only individual controlled trials reporting some therapeutic effects, but for which acupuncture is worth trying because treatment by conventional and other therapies is difficult: 

• • Chloasma
  • Choroidopathy, central serous
  • Color blindness
  • Deafness
  • Hypophrenia
  • Irritable colon syndrome
  • Neuropathic bladder in spinal cord injury
  • Pulmonary heart disease, chronic
  • Small airway obstruction

References: 

WHO. Acupuncture: Review and Analysis of Reports on Controlled Clinical Trials; 2003. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=vHU0DgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR3&dq=Acupun cture:+Review+and+Analysis+of+Reports+on+Controlled+Clinical+Trials,+World+Health+Organ ization,+2003&ots=JYvRICirZ0&sig=6PNVZjfPZuOu7wyevTI2D0_NxuI#v=onepage&q&f=false. Accessed December 29, 2019.