Hey Mary,

I have used dry needling in clinic with patients with lupus successfully. Most of the literature on using needles for lupus lives in the acupuncture world. We have to think that Lupus is a systemic, auto-immune type condition so aggressive, local, treating trigger points is most likely not going to be successful. This is still where a lot of the dry needling literature lives. To treat Lupus we want to think systemically. I would start with the homeostatic points in the area of her pain.

Here's an interesting read where the authors mention the use of acupuncture for auto-immune conditions. They state that common acupuncture points overlap with vascular and nerve connections... Treating the nervous system!

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6435962/#B84