Sept. 14, 2006 -- Acupuncture can provide long-lasting benefits to low back pain
sufferers, and is a cost effective treatment, according to new research from the U.K.
Patients treated with 10 sessions of acupuncture over three months reported less pain at a
24-month follow-up than patients who did not get the therapy. The difference between the
two groups was small, however, with researchers concluding there was a "small
benefit" at two years. Study co-author Hugh MacPherson, PhD, characterized
acupuncture's impact on the patients' pain as modest, but he tells WebMD that the ancient
Chinese medical treatment has proven its worth as an adjunct to traditional therapies for
nonspecific back pain. "Acupuncture definitely has a role in the treatment of low
back pain," he says. "And it seems to be associated with longer-term effects
than anyone has realized."
Back Pain Hard to Treat
Chronic back pain is one the most common and difficult-to-treat medical problems in
health care. The costs in terms of lost productivity and workers' compensation are
staggering. Acupuncture has become an accepted treatment for the condition in both the
United States and in Europe. But clinical evidence of its effectiveness has been
equivocal. In an analysis of 33 studies, published in 2005, acupuncture was found to be an
effective short-term treatment for low back pain, even when compared with sham treatments
using fake acupuncture, says Eric Manheimer, MS, of the Center for Integrative Medicine at
the University of Maryland. "Our analysis suggested that the benefits of acupuncture
for low back pain are not due to a placebo effect," Manheimer tells WebMD. But a
large study published in February of this year showed otherwise. Low back pain patients
treated with acupuncture reported better pain control than those who got no acupuncture.
But they fared no better than patients treated with sham acupuncture, in which needles
were placed superficially in the skin in areas not considered active acupuncture sites.
