The investigators will conduct the study with adults with chronic pain from SCD, 18 years old or greater. They will all receive acupuncture. Treatments will be twice weekly for 5 weeks, for 30 minutes per treatment. At baseline and post-treatment, subjects will complete measures that include pain, fatigue, anxiety, depressive symptoms, injustice experience, and pain catastrophizing. Subjects will also complete a measure of study acceptability, the Protocol Acceptability Scale for Treating SCD with Acupuncture at post-treatment. The investigators will describe the procedures and potential challenges to implementing the acupuncture protocol and the range in the subjects' Acceptability Scale scores. The investigators will expect to identify and rectify any procedural problems that subjects will report regarding the 10-session study protocol.
The investigators long-term goal is to demonstrate the effectiveness of acupuncture for the treatment of adults with chronic pain due to sickle cell disease (SCD), a debilitating pain syndrome characterized by acute and chronic pain. The objective of this study is to explore the feasibility and acceptability of acupuncture with adult patients with SCD. All participants will receive acupuncture treatments twice per week for 5 weeks. Subjects will complete measures at baseline and post-treatment, and a measure of study acceptability at post-treatment. The investigators will describe the procedures and potential challenges to implementing the acupuncture protocol, and expect to identify and rectify any procedural problems that subjects report regarding the 10-session study protocol.