Am J Med Sci. 2002 Mar; 323(3): 166-8.

Acupuncture therapy for persistent hiccups.

Schiff E, River Y, Oliven A, Odeh M.

Department of Internal Medicine B, Bnai Zion Medical Center, and Technion Faculty of Medicine, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa.

Persistent hiccups (singultus) is a rare but severely disabling disorder. The causes of persistent hiccups are numerous, as are the treatment options. However, none of the treatment modalities has proven to be effective by evidence-based criteria, and no treatment has been shown to be superior to another. Traditional acupuncture has not been previously reported as a modality for the treatment of persistent hiccups in the English medical literature. We describe 2 patients with persistent hiccups refractory to conventional treatments that were treated successfully using acupuncture.