Fibromyalgia Acupuncture
August 30, 2005(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Acupuncture may be a complication-free form of pain relief for patients with fibromyalgia, say Mayo Clinic researchers.
Scientists gave either true or simulated acupuncture to 50 fibromyalgia patients unable to find relief from other treatments. The patients answered questions about symptoms of pain, fatigue, and anxiety before and after treatment.
The researchers found more improvement in pain, fatigue, and anxiety in patients who received the actual acupuncture than those with simulated treatments.
"We expected the acupuncture to improve the pain. We didn't really expect the largest benefit to be in fatigue or anxiety," says David Martin, M.D., Ph.D., of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "It's my speculation that 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," Dr. Martin says.
Dr. Martin and his colleagues note although patients who underwent the acupuncture reported less pain, anxiety and fatigue, they reported no increase in physical function. Experts were not surprised by this finding. "A chronically ill person needs more than symptom relief to resume a normal lifestyle," Dr. Martin says.
SOURCE: World Congress of the International Association for the Study of Pain, in Sydney, Australia.
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