Acupuncture and Pain

Does scientific evidence support the effectiveness of acupuncture for pain relief? Why is acupuncture a good alternative to medication for pain?

Acupuncture is widely known for its effectiveness in the treatment of pain. Its unique role in reducing suffering in patients experiencing pain is one of the main reasons it has become so popular around the world. The research is plentiful on the effects of acupuncture on specific painful conditions, as can be seen throughout this website. For acute pain, a systematic review of 13 trials found that acupuncture was more effective than both sham needling and injection with painkillers.

For chronic pain, in the largest study of its kind to date, 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. In a 2-year retroactive survey of over 89,000 patients published in 2016, 93% of patients said that their acupuncturist had been successful in treating their musculoskeletal pain.

A meta-analysis of 17,922 patients from randomized trials concluded, “Acupuncture is effective for the treatment of chronic pain and is therefore a reasonable referral option. Significant differences between true and sham acupuncture indicate that acupuncture is more than a placebo.” A follow up study with this data looking at long-term pain relief, found that the benefits of acupuncture persisted 12 months after treatment ended.

Another study in the journal, Current Opinion in Anesthesiology, in the paper titled ‘Acupuncture for Chronic Pain: an Update and Critical Overview’ concluded that “mounting evidence supports the effectiveness of acupuncture to treat chronic low back, neck, shoulder, and knee pain, as well as headaches. Additional data are emerging that support the use of acupuncture as an adjunct or alternative to opioids, and in perioperative settings.”

Drugs are often prescribed to deal with a patient’s pain as a first line treatment. Yet only 23% of patients with chronic pain found opiates effective, according to a 2006 survey by the American Pain Foundation and a recent review found that opioids at guideline recommended doses were not effective for low back pain. The first randomized study to ever evaluate the long-term effectiveness of opioid for pain relief found that those taking opioids were actually in more pain at 12-months compared to those who were on non-opioid pain relief.  Opiate abuse and depression have become common in the pain equation and in the United States, and prescription opiates result in more deaths due to overdose than heroin.  An estimated two million individuals in the United States are addicted to prescription opioids, resulting in an economic cost of $78.5 billion USD annually.

While the dangers and negative effects of prescription opioids have received the most attention in the United States, new data indicates that this is a growing problem worldwide, with significant consumption in many European countries as well as Australia and New Zealand.

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), the most commonly used medications in the world, are another commonly prescribed first-line treatment for pain. However, a recent study of over 440,000 patients found that using any NSAID, including over the counter drugs like Ibuprofen, for even a short period of time was associated with an increased risk of acute heart attack, even in healthy people. In the UK, the annual cost of treating gastrointestinal harms caused by NSAID’s was £166-£367 million per year in 1999 and the number of patients on these has stayed the same, at around 7.5% of the overall population.

Source: evidencebasedacupuncture.org