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Research Archive

Welcome to our Chinese medicine and acupuncture research news pages. We add to the content of these pages continuously as more research news comes in. Browse through the complete archive below or use the category links on the right.

Please note that the most twenty recent research archive items are free to view but access to the thousands of items in the archive require a journal subscription.

Acupuncture and spine cord injury

Categories: Back, Spinal cord

Acupuncture is effective in treating chronic pain following spinal cord injury (SCI) according to research carried out at the Department of Psychiatry, New Jersey Medical School. Twenty-two patients with SCI who suffered moderate to severe pain of at least six months duration received a course of 15 acupuncture treatments over a seven and a half week period after an equivalent assessment period wi ...

ACUPUNCTURE & LOWER BACK PAIN

Categories: Back

The US Agency for Healthcare Policy & Research and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine have awarded a $1 million grant to study acupuncture as a treatment for chronic lower back pain. The 100-patient study will be carried out collaboratively between the Group Center for Health Studies (the USA's largest consumer-governed healthcare organisation with more than 650,000 ...

ACUPUNCTURE & BACK PAIN

Categories: Back

A German study into the treatment of chronic back pain has compared the benefits of: 1: true acupuncture plus conservative orthopaedic treatment, 2: sham acupuncture plus conservative orthopaedic treatment, 3: conservative orthopaedic treatment alone. The true acupuncture consisted of needling Shenshu BL-23, Weizhong BL-40, Kunlun BL-60, Jingmen GB-25, Huantiao GB-30, Yanglingquan GB-34, and up to ...

ACUPUNCTURE & CHRONIC LOW BACK PAIN

Categories: Back

In this German study, 174 patients with chronic low back pain (lasting longer than 6 weeks, and with no pending compensation claims) were randomly assigned to receive either i. True acupuncture plus conservative orthopaedic treatment (COT), ii. Sham acupuncture plus COT, or iii. COT alone. Both acupuncture groups received 3 treatments per week for 4 weeks, and both the patients and an observer wer ...

ACUPUNCTURE & CHRONIC LOW BACK PAIN

Categories: Back

In a study into the potential benefits of acupuncture for chronic low back pain in the elderly (over 60 years old), 23 patients were randomised to receive their normal care (NSAIDs, muscle relaxants, paracetamol and back exercises) and 24 to additionally receive bi-weekly electro-acupuncture for 5 weeks. The acupuncture group had a significant decrease in RDQ (Roland Disability Questionnaire) scor ...

ACUPUNCTURE FOR BACK PAIN IN PREGNANCY

Categories: Pregnancy & labour, Back

A Brazilian study which compared the levels of low back and pelvic pain in women treated by acupuncture compared to non-treated controls, found that the acupuncture group showed a greater reduction in overall pain, maximum pain and pain at the time of interview, reduced use of analgesics, and greater capacity to perform general activities, to walk and to work. (Acupuncture in Medicine, 2004 ...

ACUPRESSURE EFFECTIVE FOR LOW BACK PAIN

Categories: Back

A Taiwanese study randomly assigned 146 chronic lower back pain patients to receive either standard physical therapy or fifteen-minute acupressure treatments (six treatments over four weeks for both groups). At the end of the study, the average pain scores had decreased from 9.29 (baseline) to 2.28 in the acupressure group and from 7.68 to 5.13 in the physical therapy group. Interestingly th ...

ACUPUNCTURE FOR PELVIC AND BACK PAIN IN PREGNANCY

Categories: Back

In this Swedish study, 72 pregnant women (24-37 weeks) suffering pelvic or low back pain were randomly assigned to an acupuncture group or a control group. Traditional acupuncture points and ahshi points were needled (with deqi elicited) in individualised treatments, once or twice a week until disappearance of symptoms or delivery in the acupuncture group. Treatment was given for at least three we ...

Ear acupuncture for back pain

Categories: Back

A randomised controlled trial compared manual and electrical stimulation of the same auricular points (lumbar spine, shenmen and cushion). 61 adults with chronic back pain (more than 6 months) that did not respond to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs were randomly assigned to a manual or an electrical stimulation group (treatment given for 6 weeks with a 3-month follow-up). Criteria assessed i ...

ACUPUNCTURE RELIEVES CHRONIC BACK PAIN

Categories: Back

A meta-analysis of 33 randomised controlled trials of acupuncture has concluded that it can effectively relieve chronic lower back pain. Specifically it was found to be more effective than sham acupuncture and no additional treatment. There was insufficient data to form conclusions about its effect on acute lower back pain. (Annals of Internal Medicine, Vol. 142, Issue 8, pages 651-663).

ACUPUNCTURE & LOWER BACK PAIN

Categories: Back

An analysis of Canadian patients who had self-referred to acupuncturists for treatment for low back pain (LBP), found that they made significantly fewer visits to their physician for LBP care in the year following treatment (1.55 versus 4.45 in 1999, 1.41 versus 7.17 in 2000 and .86 versus 4.04 in 2001) compared to LBP sufferers who had not received acupuncture. They consequently required signific ...

ACUPRESSURE WINS FOR BACK PAIN

Categories: Back

A Taiwanese study has compared the effects of acupressure (six treatments) with standard physical therapy ( i n c l u d i n g p e l v i c m a n u a l t r a c t i o n , s p i n a l m a n i p u l a t i o n , t h e r m o t h e r a p y , i n f r a r e d l i g h t t h e r a p y , e l ...

ACUPUNCTURE & LOW BACK PAIN

Categories: Back

In a large study of the use of acupuncture for the treatment of around 10,000 patients with chronic low back pain, acupuncture was found to be more effective than a no-acupuncture control group and relatively cost-effective. (Pragmatic randomized trial evaluating the clinical and economic effectiveness of acupuncture for chronic low back pain. Am J Epidemiol. 2006 Sep 1;164(5):487-96).

ACUPUNCTURE & LOW BACK PAIN

Categories: Back

A landmark study has been published by the British Medical Journal on the treatment of lower back pain by acupuncture. 241 adults were randomly assigned to receive either standard care or ten acupuncture treatments and asked to record pain levels, use of pain medication and satisfaction with treatment. Although there was only a non-significant benefit for acupuncture at 12-months follow-up, compar ...

ELECTRO-ACUPUNCTURE CURES HORSE'S BACK PAIN

Categories: Back

A study of electro-acupuncture for chronic low back pain in horses has found that it can successfully alleviate thoracolumbar pain and that the analgesic effect persists for up to two weeks after the treatment. (Evaluation of electroacupuncture treatment of horses with signs of chronic thoracolumbar pain. J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2005 Jul 15;227(2):281-6).

TREATING PELVIC AND BACK PAIN IN PREGNANCY

Categories: Back

A systematic review using the Cochrane database has assessed the effects of interventions for preventing and treating back and pelvic pain in pregnancy. Authors searched the Cochrane database for randomised controlled trials of any treatment used to prevent or reduce the incidence or severity of back or pelvic pain in pregnancy. Eight studies (1305 participants from five countries) were included i ...

ELECTROACUPUNCTURE FOR DOGS DISKS

Categories: Back

Electroacupuncture is an effective treatment for intervertebral disk disease in dogs. Fifty dogs with signs of thoracolumbar intervertebral disk disease were randomly allocated to receive either electroacupuncture stimulation combined with standard W ...

ACUPUNCTURE TWICE AS GOOD FOR CHRONIC LOW BACK PAIN

Categories: Back

Another result from the large multi-centre German Acupuncture Trials (GERAC), suggests that both real and sham acupuncture are much more effective against chronic low back pain than conventional therapy. The patient- and observer-blinded randomised controlled trial involved 340 outpatient practices, including 1162 patients aged 18-86 years (average 50) with a history of chronic low back pain lasti ...

ACUPUNCTURE REDUCES MEDICAL EXPENSES FOR LOW BACK PAIN

Categories: Back

A Japanese team has investigated the effect of acupuncture on perceived pain, mood disturbances and medical expenses related to low back pain (LBP) among employees of a steel company. In the intervention study, seventy-two workers, mean age 53, received acupuncture once a week. After eight weeks of treatment, patients with LBP reported diminished pain and showed a significant decrease in total moo ...

ACUPUNCTURE BENEFITS LOW BACK PAIN

Categories: Back

Authors from Northern Ireland have published a systematic review that supports the use of acupuncture as a treatment for low back pain (LBP). Twenty-three trials involving 6359 participants were included in the meta-analysis. The authors conclude that there is moderate evidence that acupuncture is more effective than no treatment, and strong evidence of no significant difference between acupunctur ...