Acupuncture can help boost the power of drugs in reducing the pain suffered by patients with arthritis in their knees. Researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine, USA, studied 570 people with knee pain due to osteoarthritis. The patients, with an average age of 65, got either traditional Chinese acupuncture involving needles, sham acupuncture with the needles tapped at certain points but not inserted, or basic care including anti-inflammatory drugs and analgesics. Six months later, the patients filled out a questionnaire. The sham acupuncture group reported a score of -2.92 for pain and -9.87 for movement, compared to -3.79 for pain and -12.42 for movement in the group that got real acupuncture. It was found that traditional Chinese acupuncture provides clinically relevant relief from pain and improvement in function in patients with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis when added to other therapy. Patients who got three-months regular acupuncture treatment along with their normal arthritis care reported less pain and better ability to move than patients who got sham acupuncture treatment.
American College of Rheumatology Meeting,
October 2004