主题：【原创】看看针灸的临床研究结果 -- 虽远必诛

Authors' conclusions

The data do not allow firm conclusions about the effectiveness of acupuncture for acute low-back pain. For chronic low-back pain, acupuncture is more effective for pain relief and functional improvement than no treatment or sham treatment immediately after treatment and in the short-term only. Acupuncture is not more effective than other conventional and "alternative" treatments. The data suggest that acupuncture and dry-needling may be useful adjuncts to other therapies for chronic low-back pain. Because most of the studies were of lower methodological quality, there certainly is a further need for higher quality trials in this area.

than sham acupuncture and no additional treatment for

providing short-term relief of chronic low back pain. This

short-term relief seems to be sustained over the longer

term;

resulting in the identification of 33 RCTs—more

than twice as many as included in any previous review on

this topic. Because of resource limitations, we did not

search Chinese databases. This may have deflated our estimates

of effects because acupuncture RCTs published in

China have been shown to be positive in 100% of all cases

(60). The comprehensiveness of our searches (with the exception

of Chinese databases) might be expected to limit

the effects of publication bias.

Authors' conclusions

There is moderate evidence that acupuncture relieves pain better than some sham treatments, measured at the end of the treatment. There is moderate evidence that those who received acupuncture reported less pain at short term follow-up than those on a waiting list. There is also moderate evidence that acupuncture is more effective than inactive treatments for relieving pain post-treatment and this is maintained at short-term follow-up.

We found a small analgesic effect of acupuncture that seems to lack clinical relevance and cannot be clearly distinguished from bias. Whether needling at acupuncture points, or at any site, reduces pain independently of the psychological impact of the treatment ritual is unclear.