Pain

A systematic review found acupuncture was superior to both sham and no acupuncture control for many chronic pain conditions. The results were from nearly 18,000 randomized patients on high-quality trials. (Vickers, 2012)

One systematic review found that acupuncture was effective in the short-term for the treatment of neck pain. (Fu 2009)

Research has shown that acupuncture is significantly better than no treatment and at least as good as standard medical care for back pain (Witt 2006; Cherkin 2009; Sherman 2009a).

In one study, 454,920 patients were treated with acupuncture for headache, low back pain, and/or osteoarthritis in an open pragmatic trial. Effectiveness was rated as marked or moderate in 76% of cases by the 8,727 treating physicians. ( Weidenhammer W,2007)

Vickers AJ, Cronin AM, Maschino AC, et al. Acupuncture for chronic pain: individual patient data meta-analysis. Arch Intern Med. 2012;172(19):1444–1453. doi:10.1001/archinternmed.2012.3654

Weidenhammer W, Streng A, Linde K, Hoppe A, Melchart D. Acupuncture for chronic pain within the research program of 10 German Health Insurance Funds–basic results from an observational study. Complementary therapies in medicine. 2007;15(4):238-46.