Washington, Sept 25: A new study has revealed that six months of acupuncture is more effective than conventional therapy for treating chronic low back pain.

The study conducted by researchers at the University of Regensburg found that both sham acupuncture and traditional Chinese verum acupuncture, seem effective in treating chronic pain.

“Low back pain is a common, impairing and disabling condition, often long-term, with an estimated lifetime prevalence of 70 percent to 85 percent,” the authors wrote.

“It is the second most common pain for which physician treatment is sought and a major reason for absenteeism and disability,” they added.

Michael Haake, Ph.D., M.D., of the University of Regensburg, Bad Abbach, Germany, and colleagues conducted a randomized clinical trial involving 1,162 patients (average age 50) who had experienced chronic low back pain for an average of eight years.

Patients were given ten 30-minute sessions (of verum acupuncture, sham acupuncture or conventional therapy.

Conventional therapy consisted of a combination of medication, physical therapy and exercise. Five additional sessions were offered to those who had a partial response to treatment.

“A total of 13,475 treatment sessions were conducted (verum acupuncture, 4,821; sham acupuncture, 4,590; conventional therapy, 4,064),” the authors wrote.

“At six months, response rate was 47.6 percent in the verum acupuncture group, 44.2 percent in the sham acupuncture group and 27.4 percent in the conventional therapy group.”

“Differences among groups were as follows: verum vs. sham, 3.4 percent; verum vs. conventional therapy, 20.2 percent; and sham vs. conventional therapy, 16.8 percent.”

The authors also said that the effectiveness of both forms of acupuncture suggest that the therapy is stronger than conventional medication.

“The superiority of both forms of acupuncture suggests a common underlying mechanism that may act on pain generation, transmission of pain signals or processing of pain signals by the central nervous system and that is stronger than the action mechanism of conventional therapy,” the authors said.

“Acupuncture gives physicians a promising and effective treatment option for chronic low back pain, with few adverse effects or contraindications. The improvements in all primary and secondary outcome measures were significant and lasted long after completion of treatment.,” they added.

The study is published in the Sept. 24 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals (With inputs from ANI)