Is Acupuncture An Effective Treatment For Alleviating Fibromyalgia?

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this selective EBM review is to determine whether or not acupuncture is an effective treatment for alleviating fibromyalgia. STUDY DESIGN: Systematic review of three randomized controlled trials published in 2014, 2016, and 2017. DATA SOURCES: Data sources for this review were articles published in peer-reviewed journals using PubMed Database. OUTCOME(S) MEASURED: The outcome measured was the patients decrease in pain intensity through the use of the visual analog scale. RESULTS: Stival et al. (2014) found that the change in pain for patients who received true acupuncture to be statistically significant with a p-value of 0.0001. Ugurle et al. (2017) also found that the group who received true acupuncture to have a statistically significant p-value of \u3c 0.001. Vas et al. (2016) found that participants who received true acupuncture over the course of the study also had a significant p-value of \u3c0.01. CONCLUSIONS: The results of these three trials were all promising, but further research is warranted to assess the long-term benefits of using acupuncture for alleviating fibromyalgia