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Diagnosis and objective pain assessment of traditional Chinese medicine may be useful to demonstrate specific effects of acupuncture in low back pain: A prospective, randomized, controlled and single blinded pre-study

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Abstract

Objective

To prove specific effects of acupuncture on chronic pain. It was speculated that the potential specific effectiveness of acupuncture could be better shown in more properly designed studies. Therefore, diagnoses of both Western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) were used as inclusion criteria to allocate acupoints more precisely to the complaints of the patients. Secondly, objectively measurable parameters of pain relief in addition to usual Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) were chosen to quantify the effects of acupuncture.

Methods

The study was prospective, randomized, controlled and single-blinded. Eighteen patients with chronic back pain and TCM diagnosis of a Taiyang/Yangming syndrome received one single session of acupuncture chosen according to TCM diagnosis or acupuncture on points outside the meridian system (controls). We evaluated pain via VAS and increased mobility via inclinometry of the back.

Results

Although the sample size was small, there was a statistically significant improvement in pain and mobility in the intervention group (n=13), but not in the control group (n=5). The calculated sample size adequate power was lower for inclinometry than for VAS, indicating that VAS is less probable to discriminate acupuncture effects.

Conclusion

Objectively measurable physical parameters such as the angle of flexion before and after acupuncture (inclinometry) may be more suitable to measure pain relief than subjective assessment by VAS in acupuncture studies. TCM diagnosis may be a helpful inclusion criterion in studies on acupuncture, so as to potentially allocate interventions better to the complaints of patients.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar (ICBAS), University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Susana Seca, Christoph Alexander Doenitz, Sven Schroeder, Ana Anjos, Jorge Machado & Henry Johannes Greten

  2. Heidelberg School of Chinese Medicine, Heidelberg, Germany

    Susana Seca, Christoph Alexander Doenitz, Ana Anjos & Henry Johannes Greten

  3. University Hospital Center of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Paula Capelo

  4. Department of Pharmaceutical Biology, Institute of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany

    Thomas Efferth

  5. HanseMerkur Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany

    Sven Schroeder

  6. Porto Biomechanics Laboratory (LABIOMEP), University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Jorge Machado

  7. German Society of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Heidelberg, Germany

    Henry Johannes Greten

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  1. Susana Seca
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  2. Paula Capelo
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  3. Thomas Efferth
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  4. Christoph Alexander Doenitz
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  6. Ana Anjos
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  8. Henry Johannes Greten
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Correspondence to Henry Johannes Greten.

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Seca, S., Capelo, P., Efferth, T. et al. Diagnosis and objective pain assessment of traditional Chinese medicine may be useful to demonstrate specific effects of acupuncture in low back pain: A prospective, randomized, controlled and single blinded pre-study. J. Acupunct. Tuina. Sci. 11, 155–159 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11726-013-0679-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11726-013-0679-0

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