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If you have knee pain due to arthritis, you may want to
know about a recent landmark study showing that acupuncture provides pain relief
and improves function for people with osteoarthritis of the knee. This is the
largest Phase III clinical trial ever conducted of acupuncture for this kind of
pain.
The study was funded by the National Center for
Complementary and Alternative Medicine and by the National Institute of
Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, which are both part of the
National Institutes of Health.
The study involved 570 patients age 50 and older. All
patients had osteoarthritis of the knee. Participants had significant pain in
their knee in the month before the study, but they had never experienced
acupuncture before, had not had knee surgery in the previous six months and had
not used steroid injections. For the study, they continued to receive standard
care from their primary physicians, including common medications for arthritis
pain.
Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups:
acupuncture alone, sham acupuncture (in which needles were placed at areas in
the body that were not true acupuncture points) or a control group that followed
the Arthritis Foundation’s self-help course for managing their condition.
By week eight of the study, patients receiving acupuncture
were showing a significant increase in function, and by week 14, they were
showing a significant decrease in pain. The study lasted for 26 weeks, and the
improved function and pain lasted for the duration of the study. Overall,
participants receiving acupuncture achieved a 40 percent decrease in pain and a
40 percent increase in function.
Source:
Annals of
Internal Medicine, 21 December 2004; The National Center for Complementary
and Alternative Medicine
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