Study: Acupuncture Enhances Effectiveness of Standard Treatment for Chronic Pain, Depression

A recent study found that acupuncture effectively enhances the effectiveness of standard treatment for chronic pain and depression, and was more cost-effective than other forms of physical therapy.

More people are using acupuncture to treat chronic pain, but there is controversy regarding the benefits of acupuncture for clinical use, as well as its cost-effectiveness.
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In their study, researchers synthesized data from high-quality trials of acupuncture involving about 18,000 patients with musculoskeletal pain in the neck and low back, osteoarthritis of the knee, or headache and migraine. The researchers compared the efficacy of acupuncture to sham acupuncture and usual care, and determined the cost-effectiveness of acupuncture treatment to other physical therapies.

The meta-analysis showed that acupuncture plus standard care was effective across all chronic pain conditions, and met the metric for cost-effectiveness. 

To evaluate acupuncture treatment for depression, the researchers conducted a new trial of 755 individuals. Overall, they found that acupuncture plus counseling significantly reduced the severity of depression and that the benefits were sustained for up to 12 months following treatment.

“There remains some uncertainty regarding our results” the researchers concluded, “nevertheless, our program of research has used high-quality methods to provide the best possible data on the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of acupuncture for chronic pain and depression.”

—Melissa Weiss

Reference:

MacPhereson H, Vickers A, Bland M, et al. Acupuncture for chronic pain and depression in primary care: a programme of research [published online January 2017]. Programme Grants for Applied Research. doi:https://dx.doi.org/10.3310/pgfar05030.