Accupuncture good for back pain

Low back pain is a common and disabling condition with a lifetime prevalence of between 70% and 85%. It is the second most common cause of absenteeism and accupuncture is increasingly used as therapy.

Researchers looked at over 1000 patients in Germany who had experienced low back pain for an average of eight years. Patients underwent ten 30-minute sessions (approximately two sessions per week) of verum acupuncture (387 patients), sham acupuncture (387 patients) or conventional therapy (388 patients). Verum acupunture consisted of needling fixed points and additional points to a depth of 5 mm to 40 mm based on traditional Chinese medicine, while sham acupuncture consisted of inserting needles superficially (1 mm to 3 mm) into the lower back avoiding all known verum points or meridians. Conventional therapy consisted of a combination of medication, physical therapy and exercise.

A total of 13,475 treatment sessions were conducted (verum acupuncture, 4,821; sham acupuncture, 4,590; conventional therapy, 4,064). Patients receiving the additional five sessions were 232 (59.9%) in the verum group, 209 (54.3%) in the sham group and 192 (52.5%) in the conventional group.

Response rate was defined as a 33% improvement in pain or a 12% improvement in functional ability. At 6 months, response rate was 47.6% in the verum acupuncture group, 44.2% in the sham acupuncture group and 27.4% in the conventional therapy group . The improvements in pain were long-lasting.