Acupuncture as a symptomatic treatment of osteoarthritis. A systematic review

Item

Title

Acupuncture as a symptomatic treatment of osteoarthritis. A systematic review

Author(s)

Journal Publication

Date

1997

volume

26(6)

pages

444-447

Research Type

Systematic Review

Keywords

Abstract

Acupuncture is a popular complementary treatment for osteoarthritis. In order to define its effectiveness, a systematic review of the literature was undertaken. Independent literature searches identified eleven studies of acupuncture for osteoarthritis. Their results are highly contradictory. Most trials suffer from methodological flaws. The most rigorous studies suggest that acupuncture is not superior to sham-needling in reducing pain of osteoarthritis: both alleviate symptoms to roughly the same degree. This could either mean sham-needling has similar specific effects as acupuncture or that both methods are associated with considerable non-specific effects. Future research should clarify which explanation applies

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has health condition studied

Arthritis

plan

N/A

has study population number

0

has duration

N/A

Item sets