Acupuncture reported effective in treating lower-back pain

LONDON -- Acupuncture can be effective in treating patients with lower-back pain, and the benefits seem to improve with time, according to research published Friday.

Hugh MacPherson and scientists at the University of York in England said the benefits of a short course of acupuncture, which involves inserting fine needles at specific meridians of the body, were evident in their study of 241 back pain sufferers.

``If you offer acupuncture to someone with back pain, on average it is expected you are likely to benefit not just in the short term but particularly in the longer-term of 12 and especially 24 months," he said in an interview.

Lower-back pain is one of the most common medical complaints. It affects tens of millions of people and is a leading cause of employee sick days.

The researchers compared the impact of adding 10 acupuncture sessions over three months to the normal treatment for back pain, which includes medication, physiotherapy, and exercises.

Patient satisfaction and pain levels were measured and recorded during the two-year study. After three months there was not too much difference between the acupuncture group and patients who had standard therapy.

Weak evidence of improvement in the acupuncture group was found at 12 months, according to the study published in the British Medical Journal.

By 24 months the difference between the two groups had increased.

In a separate study in which they looked at the cost of acupuncture, the researchers found that the additional money spent on the acupuncture treatment appeared cost-effective.

The cost of treating each patient in the acupuncture group was $863 during the study, compared with $647 for patients who received just the standard care.