An ingenious study shows that acupuncture can help ease back pain. Surprisingly, even the control group getting sham acupuncture administered with a toothpick got relief from their pain and reported improved ability to function. The study included 638 chronic back pain patients who belong to the health maintenance organization Group Health. They were divided into four groups for eight weeks of treatment. One group got standardized acupuncture for the back; another got standard care, which included physical therapy and pain medicine; the third got individualized acupuncture treatments; and the fourth got sham acupuncture using a toothpick inside a needle guide tube.
Any kind of acupuncture treatment alleviated back pain for about 60 percent of those receiving it, and the relief often lasted at least a year. Investigators are still puzzled as to why the toothpicks worked just as well as real acupuncture needles.
[Archives of Internal Medicine, May 11, 2009]
http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/169/9/858
