Injuries and pain

Conclusions. Trigger point inactivation by dry needling is a valuable supplement to the list of migraine prophylactic tools, being equipotent to metoprolol in the influence on frequency and duration (but not severity) of attacks, and superior in terms of negative side-effects.

Hesse J, Mogelvang B, Simonsen H. Journal of Internal Medicine. 1994; 235: 451-456. 

Conclusions: Acupuncture can lead to persisting, clinically relevant benefits for primary care patients with chronic headache, particularly migraine.

Vickers AJ, et al. BMJ Epub 2004 Mar 15.

Source: http://www.acupuncture.com/newsletters/m_may04/res.htm#1#1

Conclusions: Athletes in the study group receiving only acupuncture and athletes in the study group receiving acupuncture and sports medicine received the most pain relief, were least hindered by pain during sporting and non-sporting activities, and felt overall that the treatments were more effective than those reporting in the group receiving Sports medicine only.

Matt Callison, M.S., L.Ac. works at the University of California, San Diego RIMAC Athletic Training Center.

Conclusions: In the treatment of chronic epicondylopathia lateralis humeri, acupuncture in which real acupuncture points were selected and stimulated was superior to non-specific acupuncture with respect to reduction in pain and improvement in the functioning of the arm. These changes are particulary marked at early follow-up.

M. Fink, E. Wolkenstein1, M. Karst2 and A. Gehrke

Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany, 1Ludwig Botlzmann Institute for Acupuncture, Vienna, Austria and 2Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

Conclusions: Acupuncture fared most favorably when compared to sham treatments. Nine of the 14 trials comparing true and sham acupuncture in migraine and tension-type headache patients either "showed trends in favor of acupuncture" or had patients who "did significantly better than those in the sham acupuncture group."

Conclusions: Acupuncture seems to provide improvement in function and pain relief as an adjunctive therapy for osteoarthritis of the knee when compared with credible sham acupuncture and education control groups.

Brian M. Berman, MD; Lixing Lao, PhD; Patricia Langenberg, PhD; Wen Lin Lee, PhD; Adele M.K. Gilpin, PhD; and Marc C. Hochberg, MD

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