Medical News & Perspectives / Abbasi J. Can Acupuncture Keep Women on Their Breast Cancer Drugs? JAMA. 2018;320(8):744–746. doi:10.1001/jama.2018.11068
“In the formal sense, this study did not reach its primary end point,” said Deborah Schrag, MD, an oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and the JAMA associate editor who handled the article. But, she added, “they did achieve a clear and consistent reduction in women’s symptoms.”
The experience of receiving acupuncture treatments—whether they’re real or fake—might be a factor in positive outcomes in acupuncture studies, Hershman acknowledged. “Whether or not patients were getting true acupuncture or sham acupuncture, they may have gotten other psychological benefits from just having the attention,” Hershman said of her study. Still, the magnitude of improvements in pain was larger in the true acupuncture group, which suggests additional mechanisms at work.
Acupuncture for Chronic Pain: Update of an Individual Patient Data Meta-Analysis
Vickers, A. J., Vertosick, E. A., Lewith, G., MacPherson, H., Foster, N. E., Sherman, K. J., … Linde, K. (2018). Acupuncture for Chronic Pain: Update of an Individual Patient Data Meta-Analysis. The Journal of Pain, 19(5), 455–474. doi:10.1016/j.jpain.2017.11.005
Highlights
- Acupuncture has a clinically relevant effect on chronic pain that persists over time.
- The effect of acupuncture cannot be explained only by placebo effects.
- Factors in addition to the specific effects of needling are important contributors.
- Referral for acupuncture treatment is a reasonable option for chronic pain patients.
