Acupuncture Of No Benefit To Chronic Knee Pain

Patients (ages 50 years and older) with moderate or severe chronic knee pain did not experience any health benefits from receiving acupuncture treatment, according to a recent study.

For the study, researchers divided 282 participants with chronic knee pain into different groups: those receiving needle acupuncture, laser acupuncture, and no acupuncture (or false laser treatment).
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Throughout the 12-week treatment period, participants and acupuncturists were unaware of which form of acupuncture was administered, laser or false laser.

“Both needle and laser acupuncture resulted in modest improvements in pain compared with the control group who had no treatment at 12 weeks. However, these results were not maintained at one year,” said Kim Bennell, PhD, an author of the study and researcher from the Centre for Health, Exercise, and Sports Medicine.

Investigators noted that there was no noticeable change in quality of life or feeling among the different groups. However, researchers discovered that needle acupuncture improved pain from walking at the 12-week treatment mark, though they did not last 1 year.

The complete study is published in the October issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.

-Michelle Canales

References:

Hinman RS, McCrory P, Pirotta M, et al. Acupuncture for Chronic Knee Pain. JAMA. 2014 October [epub ahead of print] doi: 10.1001/jama.2014.12660.

The Melbourne Newsroom. Study Finds Acupuncture Does Not Improve Chronic Knee Pain. October 1, 2014. http://newsroom.melbourne.edu/news/study-finds-acupuncture-does-not-improve-chronic-knee-pain-0.  Accessed October 1, 2014.