There have been over 10,000 randomized controlled trials involving acupuncture in the last 40 years and the pace of these studies has been rapidly accelerating in the last several years. The following studies are some of the more recent high-level reviews that investigate dozens of random controlled trials on acupuncture. Another paper here provides evidence that many studies fail to use enough acupuncture treatments to get the best results. We also include an important survey of 89,000 acupuncture patients that reported a very high rate of satisfaction with their acupuncture experience and outcomes.
Acupuncture is widely used and increasingly supported by scientific evidence showing it affects the nervous system and body function. With over 10,000 trials published, research has grown rapidly, making systematic reviews essential. This analysis identifies effective but underused treatments and areas needing further study.
The authors argue that the evidence supports acupuncture being recommended in practice guidelines for the following conditions: improvement in functional communication of patients with post-stroke aphasia; relief of neck and shoulder pain; relief of myofascial pain; relief of fibromyalgia related pain; relief of non-specific lower back pain; increased lactation success rate within 24 hours of delivery; reduction in the severity of vascular dementia symptoms; and improvement of allergic rhinitis nasal symptoms.
This wide range of conditions that acupuncture has been proven effective for also supports the idea that acupuncture helps the body to heal or better manage itself.
Research shows acupuncture and electroacupuncture effectively treats many types of pain and is quite safe. It works by modulating the nervous system and reducing inflammation. Evidence has strengthened in recent years with higher-quality studies.
Acupuncture research has grown rapidly, making it harder to track evidence across conditions, with this review analyzing studies from 2017–2022. It found strong evidence for 10 conditions, likely, but less strong evidence of benefits for 82, unclear results for 86, and no effect for 6, with overall evidence quality improving but more high-quality trials still needed.
“Is acupuncture dose dependent? Ramifications of acupuncture treatment dose within clinical practice and trials”.
This paper explores the major problem of under-treatment in acupuncture research and practice the leads to an underestimation of acupuncture’s effectiveness.
The Acupuncture Evidence Project (AEP) is a landmark study commissioned by the Australian Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine Association and includes the most comprehensive reviews of research on acupuncture for 123 different medical conditions.
This paper reports on a independently verified survey of 89,000 patients within a managed care Network that reported a very high rate of satisfaction with their acupuncture experience and their results.
Utilizing the widely accepted Clinician & Group Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CG-CAHPS®) survey. Created by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). This survey is being adopted widely as the standard for measuring patient perceptions of quality by health providers.
This is a position paper produced by the Acupuncture Now Foundation that reviews the evidence regarding acupuncture in pain management of the most common pain conditions and explores the role acupuncture could play in reducing dependency of opioids and other harmful drugs for managing pain. This paper also considers factors that might discourage health care professionals form recommending acupuncture such as cost and availability concerns.
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