York Clinic
Acupuncture is effective and cost-effective for low back pain
Date: 15th September 2006
In a study published today, the British Medical Journal describes how acupuncture is effective and cost effective for back pain.
Back pain is a major cause of ill health and time lost from work. Conventional medical treatments often have limited success and the NHS has identified back pain as a priority condition for research.
With Kate Thomas as principal investigator, and funded by the NHS Health Technology Assessment , and in collaboration with Hugh MacPherson of the York Clinic, a pragmatic randomised controlled trial was conducted to evaluate the clinical impact and cost effectiveness of acupuncture for chronic low back pain. A total of 241 patients were recruited, and 160 were offered acupuncture, many of who were treated by acupuncturists at the York Clinic. Patients were provided with up to 10 acupuncture treatments each over three months. The results were in favour of the acupuncture group after 12 months and were significant at 24 months. Adjusting for baseline score and for clustering by acupuncturist, the estimated intervention effect was +5.6 points on the SF-36 Pain dimension (95% CI –0.2 to 11.4, p=0.06) in favour of the acupuncture group at 12 months, and +8 points (95% CI 2.8 to 13.2, p=0.003) at 24 months. Acupuncture patients also reported a significantly greater reduction in worry about their back pain. In addition the acupuncture service was found to be highly cost-effective.
For more detailed description of our research, see the Foundation for Research into Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Key references in British Medical Journal:
Thomas KJ, MacPherson H, Thorpe L, et al. Randomised controlled trial of a short course of traditional acupuncture compared to usual care for persistent low back pain. British Medical Journal, 2006; 333: 623-626.(Full text)
Ratcliffe J, Thomas KJ, MacPherson H, Brazier J. A randomised controlled trial of acupuncture care for lower back pain: cost effectiveness analysis. British Medical Journal, 2006; 333: 626-628.(Full text)