Acupuncture Is Not Much Use for Treating Pain

Acupuncture is a popular treatment for pain of various sorts in many countries. Danish researchers have analyzed the published results of 13 acupuncture trials, which included over 3,000 patients with various types of pain – e.g. knee osteoarthritis, migraine, low back pain, and post-operative pain. All of the trials included 3 groups of patients – those given acupuncture, those given placebo or ‘pretend’ acupuncture, and those given no treatment. The results are published in the British Medical Journal.

There was only a small difference between acupuncture and placebo acupuncture; it corresponded to a reduction in pain levels of about 4 mm on a 100 mm pain-scoring scale, i.e. a 4% reduction. A 10 mm difference on this scale is classified as ‘minimal’ or ‘little change’. A moderate difference was found between placebo acupuncture and no acupuncture: 10 mm. The effect of placebo acupuncture varied considerably, but there was no explanation for this.

These findings correspond to several Cochrane reviews on acupuncture for different types of pain, which all conclude that there is no clear evidence of an important benefit of acupuncture. We suggest you try acetaminophen (Tylenol®) or ibuprophen (Advil®) instead.