Acupuncture for back pain

February 5, 2012

A recent study followed 1,100 patients for 6 months.  The participants received real acupuncture, sham acupuncture or standard care which included modalities like painkillers, injections, physical therapy, massage, heat therapy and other treatments.  All participants received 10 sessions lasting around 30 minutes each.  In the real acupuncture group, 47 percent of patients improved. In the sham acupuncture group, 44 percent did. In the standard care group, 27 percent got relief.

The standard western research model involves a double bind placebo controlled study.  This means that the patient doesn't know what treatment they are receiving, the doctor doesn't know what treatment they are giving and includes a placebo group, a group of patient receiving no treatment.  With acupuncture studies this model is impossible to create.  Either the acupuncturist is giving a real treatment or they are not, very unlike handing out a pill which could be starch or might be a real pharmaceutical.  Trying to blind the patient is equally difficult.  Do you put in needles in the wrong places?  Do you just momentarily poke the patient and not leave the needles?  Acupuncturists have varied styles point locations aren't standardized and some practitioners prefer short retention times. 

Studies like this are great they drop the double bind placebo controlled model and look at patients over time.  Do they see results or not?  That's what is most important.