This is one of a series of short articles in which I outline for you, how I approach a particular condition. People can come along with pain in any area of the back, but I shall write with a special emphasis on lower back pain, since it is the most common category. The American College of Physicians has in its 2017 guidelines, recommended acupuncture as a first-line treatment for lower back pain, finding it more effective for pain relief than medication. The German state healthcare system, has provided acupuncture for back pain since 2006. In 2013, Arthritis Research UK reported on the evidenc ..read more

American researchers studying acupuncture for back pain in the emergency department, say it shows promise as an alternative to pharmacological intervention. They studied 52 adults presenting at Brooke Army Medical Center, Texas with back pain as their primary problem. At the discretion of their responsible clinician, patients were given either acupuncture (in a style known as battlefield acupuncture), or standard drug therapy as a control. The acupuncture group exhibited a mean decrease of 33 in their visual analogue pain score, versus 21 for the drug group. At 48 to 72 hours after treatment ..read more

Australian and Chinese authors of a systematic review have concluded acupuncture is effective for treating vertebral compression fractures associated with osteoporosis. The teams, from the Universities of Tasmania and Chengdu, included 14 randomised controlled trials involving 1130 patients in their meta-analysis. Compared with control groups, acupuncture offered greater pain reduction at one week, one month and six months after treatment. It was also associated with fewer adverse events, lower disability index scores and higher bone density than controls. (The Efficacy & Safety of Acupun ..read more

Korean researchers studying the use of electro-acupuncture for back pain after surgery, have concluded that its use in addition to usual care, is more effective than usual care alone. A total of 108 participants with non-acute, post-surgical lower back pain, were randomised to receive either usual care alone, or usual care plus electro-acupuncture (EA). The latter was given twice a week for four weeks. After four weeks, significant differences emerged between the groups, with greater pain reduction and functional improvement in the EA group. The researchers conclude that EA added to usual car ..read more

Researchers lead by Harvard Medical School in the US, have been studying the mechanisms behind acupuncture’s ability to relieve pain. A total of 79 patients aged 18 to 60, with chronic lower back pain were randomly assigned to four weeks of either real or sham acupuncture. Six treatments were given in total per patient. Resting state functional MRI scans were performed prior to the first treatment and after the last treatment. Fifty patients completed the study. Reductions in the extent to which patients were troubled by their pain, were observed in both treatment groups, with significantly g ..read more