Acupuncture insights for Western medicine  

By Jeff Gould, DiplOM, Licensed Acupuncturist, Johns Hopkins Medicine 

While I was an acupuncture student, I observed Dr. Hong Jin interview a patient who came in with digestive problems. As part of the intake, she palpated the patient’s pulses and asked, “Have you recently experienced an emotional trauma?” The patient broke into tears. We were all flabbergasted that our teacher could “feel” the patient’s emotions from the pulse. Dr. Jin invited us to palpate the patient’s pulses to identify a “sorrowful” pulse.  

Emotions and a whole-person approach 

One of the things I admire about traditional Chinese medicine is that in all patients, we look at the interaction of emotions and physiological health. We may not be able to determine if an emotion is an underlying cause or simply the result of an illness, but we consider the relationship between emotions and symptoms when looking at the whole picture.  

Pulse qualities and emotional clues  

In fact, the initial intake includes determining a patient’s general emotional state. This is often done by palpating the right and left radial pulses. 19 different pulse qualities have been identified. If, for example, the Liver pulse is wiry and in excess, a patient may be experiencing anger or frustration. If the Lung pulse is feeling deep and weak, a patient may be experiencing sorrow or loss.  

In contrast, in Western medicine, patients are usually given brief questionnaires to assess anxiety and depression, and these assessments essentially only provide an objective score. This is useful, but somewhat limited in scope, as a patient can be feeling many other emotions or a combination.  

Asking about predominant emotions 

In addition to taking a pulse, I ask the patient. “What’s your predominant emotion?” Almost all new patients stop to “feel” for a moment. I’m often told, “No one has ever asked me that before.” Many then ask, “Can you give me an example?” and I list emotions such as anger, fear, frustration, sorrow, loss, rage, joy, and contentment. I’m not looking for a single answer, although I may receive one. I also want to know if a patient is experiencing any one emotion in excess OR if they’re unable to experience a full range of emotions. These both point to pathology in Chinese medicine. For example, we view excessive joy as mania. 

The clinical benefit of emotional inquiry 

One important component of Chinese medicine that we can offer biomedicine is the deeper dive into patient emotions and their interaction with symptoms. To delve into emotions, a clinician must be comfortable discussing them openly and ready for the flood gates to open, which may lengthen the visit. The upside is that the willingness to hear and understand the patient’s emotional experience can strengthen your relationship, increase patient trust, and help you provide better overall care. 

This piece expresses the views solely of the author. It does not necessarily represent the views of any organization, including Johns Hopkins Medicine.