Accupunture and back pain study

[cougarnurse]

An interesting article:
A study by German researchers has concluded that six months of acupuncture therapy is more effective at treating lower back pain than conventional methods like medications, exercise and physical therapy.

Traditional Chinese "verum" acupuncture involves inserting 14 to 20 needles up to 1-1/2 inches deep at "medians" and other prescribed locations until the patient experiences a numbing sensation called Qi.

The study involved 1,162 adults with an average age of 50 who suffered from chronic lower back pain for several years. One group received between 10 and 15 treatments of traditional Chinese "verum" acupuncture twice a week, and another group underwent conventional drug and exercise therapy. Forty-eight percent of those in the group who received acupuncture reported at least one-third less pain and an improvement in functional ability, with lasting benefits.

In the group that underwent drug and exercise therapy, only 27 percent reported gaining any relief.

A third group of patients received fake or "sham" acupuncture, where the needles are inserted randomly and shallowly around the painful area while avoiding the medians. Surprisingly, 44 percent in this group also reported relief from their back pain.

The researchers believe the alternative therapy may have had a "superplacebo" effect. Study author Dr. Michael Haake from the University of Regensburg in Bad Abbach, Germany, says the superiority of both forms of acupuncture suggests a common underlying mechanism may act on pain generation, the transmission of pain signals or processing of pain signals by the central nervous system; he says that process was stronger than the conventional drug plus exercise therapy.

Researchers also noted that positive expectations the patients held about acupuncture, or negative expectations about conventional medicine, also could have led to a placebo effect and explain the findings.

Haake says that acupuncture offers doctors and patients a promising and effective treatment option for chronic low back pain, with few adverse effects or contraindications. According to the study, between 70 and 85 percent of people suffer from chronic back pain at some point in their lives.

The study was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Any comments?

'Cat'

[Fil149]

I actually am doing my research project on Alternative vs conventional methods to treat chronic back pain and read this entire research. It was the first of it's kind to specifically prove acupunctures benefit in the treatment of chronic back pain and as a result German Insurance now covers acupuncture treatment under its plan.