Acupuncture in treatment of Lower Back Pain

Acupuncture eases chronic low back pain, improves back function and it cost-effective report researchers from Germany in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

To compare the effectiveness and costs of acupuncture along with routine care for low back pain to routine care alone, the researchers recruited 11,630 patients with chronic low back pain. Of these, 1,549 were randomly assigned to acupuncture and 1,544 to a control group. Patients in the control group were offered acupuncture after three months. The remaining 8,537 patients were included in a non-randomized acupuncture group. Patients received 15 treatments over three months, and were followed for an additional three months.

At three months, patients treated with acupuncture showed better back function: 52.6 per cent responded to treatment, compared to 26.8 per cent of control patients. Non-randomized acupuncture patients had more severe symptoms at baseline and showed improvements in back function similar to those seen in randomized patients. Benefits were nearly equal for control patients who received acupuncture later in the study. At six months, effects were slightly lower than they were at three months for patients who received acupuncture, with half of those randomized to acupuncture showing response.