Re: RESEARCH - Efficacy of acupuncture in fibromyalgia syndrome

[Guest guest]

How disappointing. I was thinking about doing acupuncture for alternative

treatment.

~ Graves

[ ] RESEARCH - Efficacy of acupuncture in fibromyalgia

syndrome

>

>Rheumatology Advance Access published online on January 25, 2010

>Rheumatology, doi:10.1093/rheumatology/kep439

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>Efficacy of acupuncture in fibromyalgia syndrome—a systematic review

>with a meta-analysis of controlled clinical trials

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>Jost Langhorst1, Petra Klose1, Frauke Musial1, Dominik Irnich2 and

>Winfried Häuser3,4

>1Department of Internal Medicine V, (Complementary and Integrative

>Medicine), University of Duisburg-Essen, Kliniken Essen-Mitte,

>2Department of Anesthesiology, Multidisciplinary Pain Center, Ludwig

>Maximilian Universität München, Munich, 3Department of Internal

>Medicine I, Klinikum Saarbrücken, Saarbrücken and 4Department of

>Psychosomatic Medicine, Technische Universität München, Munich,

>Germany.

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>Abstract

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>Objective. To systematically review the efficacy of acupuncture in

>fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS).

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>Methods. MEDLINE, PsychInfo, EMBASE, CAMBASE and the Cochrane Library

>were screened (through July 2009). The reference sections of original

>studies and systematic reviews for randomized controlled trials (RCTs)

>on acupuncture in FMS were searched.

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>Results. Seven RCTs with a median treatment time of 9 (range 6–25)

>sessions and 385 patients were included. Outcomes of interest were key

>symptoms of FMS, namely pain, fatigue, sleep disturbances, reduced

>physical function and side effects at post-treatment. Follow-up of two

>RCTs with a median follow-up of 26 weeks was available. Standardized

>mean differences (SMDs) comparing verum and control acupuncture were

>calculated. Strong evidence for the reduction of pain (SMD –0.25; 95%

>CI –0.49, –0.02; P = 0.04) was found at post-treatment. There was no

>evidence for the reduction of fatigue and sleep disturbances, or the

>improvement of physical function at post-treatment. There was no

>evidence for the reduction of pain and improvement of physical

>function at the latest follow-up. Subgroup analyses resulted in

>moderate evidence for a significant and small reduction of pain at

>post-treatment in studies with electro-stimulation and individualized

>acupuncture. Stratifying the type of controls (penetrating vs

>non-penetrating control acupuncture) did not change the results.

>Significant reduction of pain was only present in studies with risk of

>bias. Side effects were inconsistently reported.

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>Conclusion. A small analgesic effect of acupuncture was present,

>which, however, was not clearly distinguishable from bias. Thus,

>acupuncture cannot be recommended for the management of FMS.

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>http://rheumatology.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/kep439v1?papetoc

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>Not an MD

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