camwatch

Madsen MV, Gøtzsche PC, Hróbjartsson A. Acupuncture treatment for pain: systematic review of randomised clinical trials with acupuncture, placebo acupuncture, and no acupuncture groups. BMJ. 2009 Jan 27;338:a3115. PMID: 19174438

This study by researchers at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen looked at 13 trials (3,025 patients) with pain from a number of clinical conditions including knee osteoarthritis, tension-type headache, migraine, low back pain, fibromyalgia, abdominal scar pain, postoperative pain, and procedural pain during colonoscopy.

They found "a small analgesic effect of acupuncture… which seems to lack clinical relevance and cannot be clearly distinguished from bias," and concluded that "whether needling at acupuncture points, or at any site, reduces pain independently of the psychological impact of the treatment ritual is unclear." From the discussion:

Our review is the first that identifies and analyses three armed trials of acupuncture for pain, thus providing an estimate of the general analgesic effect of acupuncture and its direct comparison with the analgesic effect of placebo acupuncture. The review is fairly large, includes several trials of high methodological quality, and covers a broad range of common painful conditions…."

Our findings question both the traditional foundation of acupuncture, which is based on the existence of meridians and Qi sensations, and the prevailing hypothesis that acupuncture has an important effect on pain in general. If this hypothesis is wrong, and our results point to that, then acupuncture would seem to be unlikely to have an effect on pain related only to certain conditions, but further studies may examine this question."

CAMWatch: Posts about free-access, peer-reviewed articles on aspects of complementary medicine theory, practice and policy (about the blogger). This blog is not a source for medical advice.

technorati tags: complementary and alternative medicine integrative medicine pain

Comments and Links Appreciated!