” if acupuncture works for these patients with recalcitrant fibromyalgia, where previous treatments had not provided satisfactory relief, it would likely work for many of the millions of fibromyalgia patients”
David Martin, M.D., Ph.D., of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit worldwide leader in medical care, research and education
” After four weeks, the acupuncture group was significantly better than the group who took fluoxetine in the number of tender points. Total fibromyalgia symptoms were significantly improved in the acupuncture group compared with the fluoxetine group during the study period.
At the end of one year of the follow up, patients who received acupuncture were significantly better than the control group in all measures. Fatigue and anxiety were the most significantly improved symptoms during the follow up period.”
A randomized clinical trial of fibromyalgia treatment with acupuncture compared with fluoxetine
“acupuncture was significantly better than sham acupuncture for relieving pain and improving the quality of life”
“… recommended for the management of FM.”
Journal of Pain Research- a systematic review and meta-analysis
A systematic study published in Orthopaedic reviews headed by Amnon Berger, MD, PhD from Harvard Medical School concluded that mounting evidence supports its use of acupuncture as part of multimodal approaches to treatment. And that further research will likely provide data on effective regimens and combination therapies.
A study in 2008 did a follow up 3 months after the treatment, and concluded that real acupuncture therapy may be an effective therapy for fibromyalgia long-term.
In 2020 85.4% of patients improved in FIQ-R. “Acupuncture is an effective treatment in high-severity fibromyalgia unresponsive to other forms of therapy.”
Rico-Villademoros et al. (2020) found that patients reported the highest satisfaction with acupuncture among all the treatments, and poor satisfaction with pharmacologic treatments.
Amnon A. Berger, MD, PhD, 1 Yao Liu, MD, MS, 1 Jeanne Nguyen, BS, 2 Robert Spraggins, BS, 2 Devin S. Reed, MD, 3 Christopher Lee, MD,corresponding author 4 Jamal Hasoon, MD, 1 and Alan D. Kaye, MD, PhD 5. Efficacy of acupuncture in the treatment of fibromyalgia. Orthop Rev (Pavia). 2021; 13(2): 25085.
Published online 2021 Jun 22. doi: 10.52965/001c.25085
Karatay S, Okur SC, Uzkeser H, Yildirim K, Akcay F. Effects of Acupuncture Treatment on Fibromyalgia Symptoms, Serotonin, and Substance P Levels: A Randomized Sham and Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial. Pain Med. 2018;19(3):615-628. doi:10.1093/pm/pnx263
M DC, G B, F S. Acupuncture for Fibromyalgia: An Open-Label Pragmatic Study on Effects on Disease Severity, Neuropathic Pain Features, and Pain Catastrophizing. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2020;2020. doi:10.1155/2020/9869250
F RV, P PM, J GL, J OC, E C. Patterns of pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic treatment, treatment satisfaction and perceived tolerability in patients with fibromyalgia: a patients’ survey – PubMed. Clinical and experimental rheumatology.