Acupuncture good for back pain

Acupuncture is good for lower back pain when combined with exercise, a pilot study from Northern Ireland has indicated.
 
Auricular (ear) acupuncture also appears to have a wider beneficial health impact on patients.
 
According to the researchers, small acupuncture needles in the ear are potentially a very cost effective and innovative approach that could be easily combined with other treatments, such as exercise.
 
The participants of the study reported that the programme had a range of psychological as well as physical benefits and the treatment had, for many, a ‘huge impact on their quality of life’.
 
“The main findings from this study are that a combined approach – acupuncture and supervised exercise classes – improves the management of low back pain more than exercise classes alone,” said Prof Suzanne McDonagh from the Schools of Health Sciences and Psychology at the University of Ulster.
 
According to the researchers, the recently published National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines recommend a course of acupuncture or supervised exercise classes for people with low back pain.
 
However, more work needs to be done on how these treatments might be combined in large-scale studies, the researchers said.
 
Auricular acupuncture is commonly used in the treatment of people with substance misuse to reduce cravings and other withdrawal symptoms.
 
The research was presented to the North American Conference on Complementary and Integrative Medicine.
 
 
 

[Posted: Wed 19/08/2009]