Acupuncture appears better for back pain than drugs and exercise

Sep 24 2007

If you are one of the millions struggling to cope with lower back pain acupuncture might provide some welcome relief.

{IMAGE}A study by German researchers has found in fact that twice as many patients gained relief from the pain as those provided with the more conventional therapy of medication and exercise.

The researchers believe the alternative therapy may have had a "superplacebo" effect.

The study looked at 1,162 adults with an average age of 50 who had suffered from chronic lower back pain for a number of years.

According to the study as many as 70 to 85 percent of people complain of back pain at some stage in their lives.

The study participants were randomly split into three groups, one group underwent between 10 and 15 treatments with traditional Chinese "verum" acupuncture, another received drug and exercise therapy, while the third group underwent 'sham' acupuncture, where needles are inserted randomly and less deeply around the painful area while avoiding the medians.

The research team found that 48 percent of those in the group who received the acupuncture reported at least one-third less pain and an improvement in functional ability, with lasting benefits.

In the group undergoing drug and exercise therapy only 27 percent reported gaining any relief.

The traditional Chinese acupuncture therapy involved between 10 and 15 treatments which were given twice a week.

This involves 14 to 20 needles which are inserted up to 1-1/2 inches deep at "medians" and other prescribed locations until the patient is said to experience a numbing sensation, called Qi.

The sham acupuncture patients had needles inserted randomly and less deeply around the painful area while avoiding the medians and of these, 44 percent reported relief from their back pain which was more than the patients given the conventional therapy and only slightly fewer than traditional acupuncture.

Study author Dr. Michael Haake from the University of Regensburg, Bad Abbach, in 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.

The success of the two acupuncture techniques suggests that patients' positive expectations persuade them the treatment helps as the patients in the study did not know the difference between the two techniques.

Dr. Haake suggests an unknown but common underlying mechanism in acupuncture is at work which relieves pain regardless of where the needles are placed.

Both the psychological and physical impacts combined to benefit more people in the verum acupuncture group and Dr. Haake says acupuncture offers doctors a promising and effective treatment option for chronic low back pain, with few adverse effects or contraindications.

The study is published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.