The long-term value of self-acupuncture for chronic musculoskeletal pain
Acupuncture is expensive, but self-acupuncture might offer an effective treatment alternative. A retrospective audit of patients in the U.K. with chronic pain who were taught self-acupuncture as a home pain management strategy has been published. Each patient had responded to acupuncture previously and been taught self-acupuncture successfully using three acupuncture points (LI4, ST44, LR3).
Here’s a summary or the results.
- 52 patients (70% female)
- 38 valid questionnaires returned (73%)
- 87% still used self-acupuncture and experienced pain reduction
- Pain relief of 5.7 on a visual analogue scale
- Improved quality of life reported by 74%
- No serious adverse effects reported
Other studies summarized here concluded that for persistent non-specific low back pain, a short course of acupuncture appeared to provide modest benefit to health, at a relatively minor extra cost to the U.K. healthcare system.
When used as self-treatment at home, patients who respond initially appear to have a good chance of continued pain relief.
9/24/06 10:14 JR
