New research shows acupuncture more effective for low back pain than conventional treatment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) October 22, 2007 --

Acupuncture is almost twice as effective as conventional therapy at treating low back pain, new study says. Over 1,100 patients with a history of chronic low back pain lasting on average 8 years took part in clinical trials. Traditional Chinese Medicine acupuncture was tested against the effects of sham acupuncture (placing needles in non-acupuncture points on the body) and conventional therapy (a combination of drugs, physical therapy and exercise). Patients received ten 30-minute acupuncture sessions, generally two times a week. After 6 months, the results showed that pain reduction was sustained for 48% in the acupuncture group, compared with 20% in the conventional therapy group.

The findings add to a growing body of evidence supporting the effectiveness of traditional Chinese acupuncture in treating low back pain. Often a shortcoming of many clinical trials is that they do not assess the long-term effects of intervention, so what may appear cost-effective in the short term, may not be over time.

Tracey Goulding, acupuncturist working in East Dulwich, London comments “the majority of people are likely to experience back pain at some point in their lives, and the cost in terms of quality of life and to the economy is high; so it is encouraging to see research which is supporting our work and offering GPs another tool at their disposal which they can use to help their patients.”

Reference:
Haake M et al (2007) German acupuncture trials (GERAC) for chronic low back pain: Randomized, Multicenter, Blinded, Parallel-Group Trial With 3 Groups. Archives of Internal Medicine; 167:1892-1898

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