Individualized acupuncture alongside immune therapy improved movement, daily function, and quality of life in a patient with stiff person syndrome.
This case report followed a postmenopausal woman with stiff person syndrome associated with ovarian cancer, who experienced painful muscle stiffness, back and hip pain, insomnia, chemotherapy-related nerve symptoms, and poor wellbeing. She received weekly body, electrical, and ear acupuncture for nine weeks while continuing intravenous immune globulin treatment. Clinicians tailored the acupuncture protocol during treatment and assessed stiffness, sensitivity, movement, walking and stair-climbing ability, and health-related quality of life before and after the intervention.
Flexibility improved early in treatment, while walking and stair-climbing improved sustainably after the acupuncture protocol was adjusted midway through care. Although the participant’s overall self-rated health remained unchanged, other measured aspects of quality of life improved, suggesting that individualized acupuncture may complement ongoing treatment by reducing functional limitations and improving wellbeing.
